Reserve Team Match Reports 2010/11

Friday 13th August - Reserve Section (West) - Lancing 3 Storrington 2

Storrington travelled to Lancing FC for their 1st league game of the season, to be played in font of a decent sized crowd and on a very slick new pitch. A 4-4-2 formation was preferred and both teams started at a frantic pace in order to get a stranglehold on the game. Lancing played some nice football across their back 4 whilst always looking to move the ball quickly forward for their pacey front-line. Storrington however were looking to move theball out wide to Jake and Sam. It was Lancing who drew 1st blood in the match, the Storrington players were caught napping when a short corner was taken, Jamie Dawson closed in to press the attack and was judged to have fouled the Lancing player in the area as he turned..... There were claims of minimal contact and the penalty decision looked a tad dubious, in fairness though the Storrington players were caught out. The Lancing player struck the penalty and Kieron made a fantastic save, however the follow up was smashed home.
1-0 down and after some fantastic mazy runs from Sam Cornish, Storrington were not making their mark on the game as much as they would have wanted to. Dan Meason and Neil Richardson had not seen enough of the ball by the end of the 1st half and this was mainly due to the Storrington midfielders panicking under pressure. Half-time came and Storrington players were encouraged to be more decisive in the 2nd half and play with more confidence.
Dan Cobb and Iain Jarvie started the 2nd half superbly for Storrington in the centre of midfield, winning takles and headers at every opportunity which allowed the Storrington back 4 to get higher up the pitch. It was Dan Cobb who got the equaliser with a superb moment of committment and desire - a dodgy pass back to the Lancing keeper was closed down and this resulted in the ball hitting cob then smashing into empty net. 1-1 and Lancing had taken their foot off the pedal whilst Storrington were now starting to get the ball out wide very quickly. Seven minutes later Dan Meason and Neil Richardson exchanged passes on the edge of the box which resulted in a foul. Storrington were awarded a free-kick in a position where 2 or 3 of their players were capable of scoring from, up stepped Sam Cornish who bent a fierce free kick into the top corner - a goal of significant quality!
2-1 up and Dan Meason and Neil Richardson were holding the ball well up front although credit to Lancing who also looked dangerous from set pieces and who had rattled the bar on a couple of occassions. Lancing were turning up the pressure and began to play very direct using their pace up front - this put Andy Long and Vinny to the test on numerous occassions. With only ten minutes left on the clock Lancing got an equaliser when Jake Cocherton unfortunately sliced his clearence into the path of a Lancing striker who finished well.
2-2 and the match could have gone either way, Meason had a fierce shot saved and then Storrington also had another free-kick which this time was off-target. With only 2 minutes left Storrington did not clear the danger convincingly and the Lancing striker raced through on goal and scored the winner despite strong pressure from Vinny.
Storrington were good value for the draw and after the game had plenty of reason to feel aggrieved although Lancing had worked hard to punish Storrington for the few mistakes they made. Dave George and 16 year old Jake Meade-Palmer made promising appearances from the bench.
With good performances from Keiron, Longy and Vinny at the back combined with a man-of-the-match effort from Sam Cornish there were plenty of positives to be taken from the game. With the team still taking shape we are looking forward to the next league match with confidence. A special thanks must go to Chris Hawkins, Olly, Jeeves,Luke Bishop and Simmo who all helped out on the night and unfortunately did not feature in the game.

TEAM: Gillard; Frost, Vincent, Long, Dawson (George); Cornish (Meade-Palmer), Cocherton, Gillard, Cobb; Meason, Richardson.

Saturday 7th August - Pre-Season Friendly - Storrington 0 Ifield Edwards 1

Ifield were next up for Storrington reserves in their 4th pre-season game. Ifield turned up with a very athletic and capable squad which was sure to be Storrington's toughest test yet of the pre-season campaign. Storrington made a couple of changes from the previous game with Will Brownlee and Macca introduced along with the return of Iain 'Crouchy' Jarvie.
It was Ifield that started the game brightly - their capable midfield had real pace and were not afraid to attack the Storrington backline. It took a good 15 minutes of pressure before Storrington were able to settle - the back line led by Andy Long and Andy Vincent were leading by example whilst Sam Cornish used the ball well from left-back and Macca was working hard at right-back. Iain was working hard in the centre-midfield role and was at the centre of Storrington's creativity. Despite some very good passes and runs from Iain, Storrington struggled to unlock the Ifield back line which meant Rico and Dan Meason had to work tirelessly in order to force errors. Out wide Jake Cocherton and Will saw very little action and often had to tuck in to stifle the Ifield midfield.
As the 1st half went on Storrington grew into the game, Rico had some good link-ups with the midfielders and Meason was causing problems which led to many occasions whereby the Ifield defenders were frequently pulling his shirt! Storrington continued to work hard for the 1st half but it was clear to see that both sets of centre midfielders were cancelling each other out and stifling the game.
The 2nd half went up a gear or two in terms of quality and pace. Dan Cobb was more involved and Storrington started to play higher up the pitch and this meant that our strike force were seeing more of the ball. Andy Long nearly scored against his former club when his volley went just wide, whilst Ifield also did well to defend against some very fast Storrington counter-attacks.
With the 2nd half in full swing Jake-Meade Palmer, Dave George, Luke Bishop, Chris Hawkins, Pete Ansley, Jamie Dawson and Stu McCaig were all introduced. It was Dave George and Jake that caught the eye with some real pacey breaks down the left-hand side whilst Jamie looked solid at left-back. With only minutes left Jake Meade-Palmer had a counter attack which broke down and then Ifield went up the other end and scored with a 30-yard screamer. The game ended 1-0 but Storrington can be extremely proud of the efforts and commitment which they gave to the game.
With our 1st game of the league campaign coming up all players gave a good account of theirselves, the back 4 seems to be very consistent and this is something that will provide our team with a very solid foundation, Keiran is talking well to the defenders and is showing more experience than expected. Iain Jarvie was man-of-the match for his all action display.

Saturday 31st July - Pre-Season Friendly - Storrington 2 L&S Athletic 1

Storrington welcomed L&S Athletic to the Amberley pitch for their toughest test yet. After 2 decent friendly matches in recent weeks, Storrington had to step their game up against L&S Athletic of the Worthing Prem League - a team that can easily be considered one of the best teams outside of the county league on their day.
Storrington started quite slowly with the L&S talented midfield pulling the strings - it took a good 15 minutes for Storrington to get a foot hold in the game, after the initial slow start the centre-back pairing of Andy Vincent and Andy Long started to snuff out the clever through-balls being played by the opposing Midfielders and Keiran Gillard had made a couple of excellent one-on-one saves. Dan Cobb was working wonders in the centre of midfield, winning tackles at every opportunity and supplying the ball out wide to Sam Cornish and Jake Cocherton. By getting a grip on the midfield battle, Storrington were able to push higher up the pitch and this meant that the dangerous runs of Dan Meason were causing L&S problems, Rico started to influence the game and it was not long before he muscled out a defender and cut back the pass to Dan Cobb who finished from close range. 1-0 up and Chris Hawkins was introduced to replace Pete Ansley - Pete had been very good in posession up to this point. The half finished 1-0, Jake and Sam had got in good positions out wide, ably supported by Jamie Dawson and Stu McCaig. Storrington had seen a lot of posession but were guilty of being wasteful in the final 1/3 of the pitch.
Storrington started the 2nd half and allowed 15 mins to pass before making substitutions, Jake Meade-Palmer, Luke Bishop, Gary Frost, Dave George were all introduced to allow for a decent chance to impress. 16 year old Jake Meade-Palmer was terrorising the L&S right-back whilst Luke Bishop playing in the right midfield position saw a lot of posession. It was Luke Bishop that created the 2nd goal - his cross into the area was driven in with real pace and the L&S centre-back turned the ball into his own net.
With 15 mins remaining Stacey was introduced at Left-Back and showed good vision to create a couple of opportunities for the team. L&S did get a consolation goal towards the end but Storrington's committment and fitness were enough to see the game out for a 3rd win in a row.
Dan Cobb pipped Andy Vincent to the man-of-the-match award, whilst Rico and Dan Meason are now starting to look like a formidable partnership in attack. There were some excellent and very hard working displays on show from all of the Storrington squad and with some excellent players unavailable due to injury we are aiming to continue our good pre-season form.

Saturday 24th July - Pre-Season Friendly - Storrington 4 Ferring 0

Storrington hosted the Ferring Reserve team for the 2nd of their pre-season Friendly matches.
Ferring turned up with a young side combined with 3 or 4 very experienced players, on paper this looked like it should have been a tough test. The starting line up for Storrington saw Sam Cornish earn a start, making his debut for the club and it was Sam that broke the deadlock ten-minutes into the match with a beautifully placed direct free-kick that left the Ferring keeper with no-chance.
In the midfield Ian 'Crouchy' was making his first appearance of the campaign and added some steel and tenacity to the centre of midfield - the hard working combination of Crouchy and Cobb were causing Ferring problems. Dan Meason had a couple of early chances that he was unable to finish, whilst Neil Richardson's experience was helping us to create chances. Towards the end of the 2nd half Dan Meason got the goal that his hard-working performance had deserved - a well placed-lob from 30 yards out dipped into the net and no doubt this could be one of many goals for Dan this season. 2-0 up at halftime and the instruction to the team was to cut out the small mistakes and keep the ball for longer - something which we definately did throughout the 2nd half.
At the break further substitutions were made, Arron Coulson came on in attack whilst Chris Hawkins, Stu McCaig, Dave George and Joe Perry all got 2nd half action. Arron Coulson was in the right place at the right time to score the teams 3rd goal after following up a shot that had hit the crossbar. During the last 20 minutes, 16 year old Jake Meade-Palmer was introduced to the game in attack and his 1st touch of the game saw him unleash an unforgettable strike into the top-corner of the net - a goal that shows how much potential Jake has.
The game finished 4-0 and in fairness Storrington looked dangerous throughout. In a game where 4 excellent goals were scored it would be easy to forget what a great job Andy Long and Andrew Vincent had done leading the backline, combined with a solid performance from Keiran Gillard in goal.
Andy Vincent was awarded man-of-the-match although Dan Meason and Jake Cocherton also shone. With 2 clean sheets in a row, confidence is growing, but next week will see a tougher test when we face Worthing Prem side L & S - a team that contains some excellent players.

Saturday 17th July - Pre-Season Friendly - Storrington 1 Rustington 0

With many new faces on show combined with some of last years squad, Storrington hosted Rustington reserves at Amberley. Rustington started the game fielding 3 of their 1st team squad and certainly passed the ball well. Storrington defended well and looked dangerous on the break with Arron Coulson and Dan Meason chasing down the Rustington back four. As the first half went on, Pete Ansley looked very good in a holding-Midfield role, picking up a lot of the loose balls and picking out some very good passes. Such was his impact on the game that Rustington switched their formation to 4-5-1.
Storrington grew into the first half, Dale Jones in goal was untroubled and the centre-back pairing of Andy Vincent and Simmo were a solid foundation for the team. It was Storrington that scored the only goal of the game, a move that started from the back and led to four passes that found Andy Quigg on the edge of the box. Quigg drilled a low shot into the botttom corner that left the Rustington keeper with no chance. After scoring, Storrington were forced back for the last ten mins of the 1st half. Jeeves had been a calming influence at left-back whist the team defended well as a whole. Arron Coulson did have a one-on-one chance that he put just over the bar.
The second half saw Storrington make a number of changes to give everyone a bit of pre-season action. The number of changes made did, at times, make the game a bit disjointed but there were some very encouraging performances. Rustington had a larger part of posession in the second half but only really created two decent chances which goalkeeper Dale Jones saved superbly from. Storrington used the pace of Coulson and Meason up top to counter well and this always made Storrington dangerous - the introduction of Neil Richardson gave Storrington more physical presence in the midfield.
The game ended in a 1-0 win for Storrington. The team looked good in terms of fitness and showed a lot of potential on the ball. Competition for places is very good and there will be some tough decisions to make in the coming weeks. Dan Meason was man-of-the match after a hard-working performance in attack where he was unlucky not to score. There were other excellent performances from Andy Vincent, Simmo and Peter Ansley.