Central City played out a 1-1 draw against Sidmouth at Newton Poppleford on Saturday in really difficult conditions.The first opponent was the 9 players of Sidmouth,the second a short,dry and bumpy pitch and the third opponent was a strong breeze.
The structure of the match began to resemble a summer tournament type game,crowded midfield and the first half crosswind sending the ball more often than not into the hedge at the top end of the field.In a frustrating game,City began to gauge the strength of pass needed to find each other and started to string several moves together.Following a succession of City corners,they eventually took the lead when Alfie W netted from reasonably close range.
Sidmouth levelled from a direct freekick from just inside the City half,which sailed and moved with the crosswind to sneak into the top right hand corner of Sam R’s goal.A windbreak would not have been out of place to sit behind for the teamtalk.
The second half,if anything,gave City even more weather problems as the wind had changed direction and was now blowing straight into their faces.With the ball being more often out of play than in,it was difficult to play the ball through the air at all,and the boys did their best to adjust as corner balls followed unpredictable flight paths.Either side could have taken the points such was the lottery but City perhaps went closest,Alfie W hitting the post,a great Sam P header and a Tom run all just falling short.
Men of the match for this penultimate fixture of the campaign was all the team.Arguably the elements won
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