FINAL SCORE:
Funk Soul Brothers.........2
AFC Maidstone...0


Luck was clearly on Funk Soul Brothers' side yesterday, after a narrow victory that was perhaps underserved.
From the off, AFC were playing a defensive formation with 3 at the back and Ward on his own up front but with Pilcher making the occassional surge forward to hel out. With chances few and far between for both sides, the best chance came to the Stones who were awarded a penalty. James Ward stepped up and his shot was saved with the keepers legs. Heads went down and FSB piled on the pressure. AFC held out for the large part of the half, with Cleisham leading by example by making some tough tackles. Pilcher was impeded for taking a swipe at his opponents legs with the ball long gone. Another mistake by Pilcher led to the goal late in the second half. With AFC getting no real chances, Pilcher decided to play it from the back. He successfully out-ran two players, but was stopped was tackled on the half-way line. A pass up-field found Chris Morris, the divisions joint top-scorer before the match with 6, had plenty of time to beat Cope from close-range. The score stayed the same until half-time: 1-0.
The second half underway and AFC couldn't find that breakthrough. Their counter-attacking just wasn't working, and the substitiute keeper (who came on after the other keeper severely hurt a finger) had an easy time. Epps was the main threat, working busily up front on his own. Spencer came on and looked back to his best, making some crunching tackles. FSB extended their lead soon after. With the defence all running to the right to stop Morris, there were players unmarked at the far post and one of them was on hand to fire past Cope, who had kept the score from increasing dramatically with some great saves. With five minutes left, there was another penalty. Pilcher would have had a one-on-one, but was taken out and left in a heap on the floor. The keeper enroached from his area to collect the loose ball, and a penalty was duly given. As Pilcher hobbled off, Epps and Cleisham stood over the ball. Cleisham stepped up - but the keeper dived to his right to save the penalty. It was end-to-end stuff from then on, with Ward having a shot saved and Spencer twice going close with long-range efforts. Cope made a superb reflex save. A powerful, curling close-range shot looked destined for the top corner, until he showed his agility by diving to his left to keep it out. The final whistle went a few minutes later - not a bad performance but their lack of a cutting edge without Ryan showed.


TEAM: Cope; Pilcher, Epps (Spencer 9), Cleisham; Ward.

SCORERS: - (Ward miss/pen 4)
(Cleisham miss/pen 19)

Manager comments:
"If we had had that result last season, we'd have been over the moon. But considering the performances so far and the fact we had two penalties, I'm disappointed. We needed to prove that we can cope without Ryan, and although it was probably our best defensive display ever, we lacked up front. Robin and Adrian were brilliant today. We'll miss Adrian when he misses the match in 4 weeks. We now have a week off so I can recover. Both my knees are sore and swollen and my elbow is grazed. As about the incident, I was definitely the last man but I don't know if thats a red card offence in 5-a-side but then we got a penalty out of it. The week off will give us time to reflect and if we can get that belief that we can win - which we've only had the game vs GAP - we'll be flying."