A comprehensive victory

A second consecutive win against a side that beat us comfortably last season. However, we have made great progress since the start of this season and this was a very dominant performance. Ashford's drop press allowed us to immediately settle into our transition game and right from the very start we moved the ball laterally at speed and continually opened channels of attack for our midfield and defence. Our own high press put the Ashford centre backs under real pressure and this led to a lot of turnovers in their half. It was 2-0 at half time, both goals scored from short corner rebounds, Tim collecting his own rebound (very skilfully in the air) and slotting home and Freddie reacting quickest to a flick from the old man of the side. Defensively we were sound, only one short corner conceded and dealt with ably.
The second half was a series of opportunities for us and not a lot for them. In truth, the end score should have been 5 or 6-0 but we were wasteful with our finishing and in fact our 3rd goal also came from a corner with Tim netting his second goal from a fine low right flick. Lots of focus on shooting in training but although our captain & GK Matt claimed he made one fine save in the 2nd half, he also admitted he was cold for the rest of it through inaction !
The whole team garnered the man of the match and DoD was definitely me who managed to hit Freddie for the 3rd time this season (this time very painfully below the knee). One more game to go vs Folkestone and then a well earned rest.