AFC GROUNDHOPPERS

League

 

 

Last years Division One champions Ex-Blues arrived at Sydenham Sports Club full of confidence after only one official league defeat in three and a half years.

 

AFC Groundhoppers knew that nothing but a strong performance would be enough to guarantee a victory on the opening day of the season.

 

After just 21 seconds Sam Dangerfield burst onto a soft pass back from the Ex-Blues left back and slide the ball past the keeper to give Hoppers the perfect start. Not long after the goal the Blues striker found himself six yards from goal but could only hit a shot straight at Adam Ballard.

 

Hoppers were the better side for the first half an hour and caused Ex-Blues problems with their pace up top and constant hassling all over the park. Ex-Blues shaded the last 15 but without creating anything significant.

 

The second half was pretty much a backs to the wall job by AFC GH who found it difficult to retain possession but defended superbly. Ex-Blues pressed hard but ended up with two players in the sin-bin on two separate occasions which should have given Hoppers more impetus to get forward. Unfortunately AFC GH struggled to cause much of a threat but always looked dangerous on the counter.

 

With six minutes to go debutante Kavan Burton twist and turned his way into space before finding Joe Willis who threaded through Marcus Black to tuck the ball under the Ex-Blues keeper making it 2-0. With time running out Hoppers conceded a free-kick in a dangerous area which was headed home from a superb delivery to make it 2-1.

 

AFC GH managed to hold out for the few remaining minutes to pick up a precious and well deserved three points against the early league favourites.

 

AFC Groundhoppers boss Darren Phillips:

 

“Good attitude and great desire by the lads, we were resilient and determined to get a result.

 

“Hopefully this is a good platform to move forward.”

 

The gaffer was certainly pleased after a hard fought victory against a side that will be there or there about’s come May. AFC GH have shown they can dig in deep to get the right result without playing the football we would like. Playing pretty football every week is nice to watch and to be involved in but it doesn’t put points on the board. We will play better in other games during the course of the season but I doubt there will be many that will feel as sweet.

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AFC Groundhoppers

Adam Ballard, Kadeem Wallace, Joe Phillips, Ollie Spedding, Ben Phillips, Denzil Rolle (c), Jordan Brown, Johnston Brown, Sam Dangerfield, Tom Bolger, Marcus Black, Joe Willis , Bradley Ladeinde, Rob Biggs, Kavan Burton