Norsemen let an opportunity slip in their first game since December against a fellow relegation threatened team.
After absorbing early pressure from Bank of England, Norsemen hit the front when Roland Hunt burst through to slip his shot past the keeper only to see it lose speed on the extremely wet surface down the Grocers End. Luckily, on hand were two Norsemen to fight over who got the tap in with Larry Laniyan winning the race over Marco Asaro to open the scoring.
The match settled into a bit of a dogfight for the rest of the half with few real chances being made until right before the halftime whistle, Laniyan made his size count with a bullocking run before Michael Herbert eventually fired home to make the halftime score 2 nil to Norsemen.
The halftime talk centred around continuing to press and to kill the game with a third goal. If it didn't happen plan B was to ensure the game was not lost, with getting goal-side of the man immediately after losing possession the main objective. Norsemen should've been talking about plans C, D, and E, as 20 minutes in the scores were locked up at 2 all.
Having had 8 weeks off football the last 25 minutes were always going to be a real test of character with fitness levels very obviously starting to fade. Norsemen were very much now relying on counter attacking football and were doing so quite effectively, Laniyan scoring his second to regain the lead with 20 minutes remaining. One or two further opportunities to ice the game went begging through over-hit final passes or poor technique on the shot, and Norsemen would eventually pay for this wastefulness.
The final 10 minutes became one way traffic with an equalizer scored followed by a goal JJ will feel he should have done better with to see Norsemen behind 3 4. The 5th was conceded with everyone pressing forward chasing the game and only really served to rub salt into open wounds.
In the end fitness levels were probably the key factor in this match as Bank of England had been lucky enough to have a few fixtures under the belt. It will be very important to have players available to get consistency in selection and fitness levels up to have a chance of fighting off back to back relegations.
On a side note - it was good to see prolific scorer in past seasons Ross Davis back on board, he added a creative spark and link between midfield and strikers that certainly troubled the Bank of England defences.
After absorbing early pressure from Bank of England, Norsemen hit the front when Roland Hunt burst through to slip his shot past the keeper only to see it lose speed on the extremely wet surface down the Grocers End. Luckily, on hand were two Norsemen to fight over who got the tap in with Larry Laniyan winning the race over Marco Asaro to open the scoring.
The match settled into a bit of a dogfight for the rest of the half with few real chances being made until right before the halftime whistle, Laniyan made his size count with a bullocking run before Michael Herbert eventually fired home to make the halftime score 2 nil to Norsemen.
The halftime talk centred around continuing to press and to kill the game with a third goal. If it didn't happen plan B was to ensure the game was not lost, with getting goal-side of the man immediately after losing possession the main objective. Norsemen should've been talking about plans C, D, and E, as 20 minutes in the scores were locked up at 2 all.
Having had 8 weeks off football the last 25 minutes were always going to be a real test of character with fitness levels very obviously starting to fade. Norsemen were very much now relying on counter attacking football and were doing so quite effectively, Laniyan scoring his second to regain the lead with 20 minutes remaining. One or two further opportunities to ice the game went begging through over-hit final passes or poor technique on the shot, and Norsemen would eventually pay for this wastefulness.
The final 10 minutes became one way traffic with an equalizer scored followed by a goal JJ will feel he should have done better with to see Norsemen behind 3 4. The 5th was conceded with everyone pressing forward chasing the game and only really served to rub salt into open wounds.
In the end fitness levels were probably the key factor in this match as Bank of England had been lucky enough to have a few fixtures under the belt. It will be very important to have players available to get consistency in selection and fitness levels up to have a chance of fighting off back to back relegations.
On a side note - it was good to see prolific scorer in past seasons Ross Davis back on board, he added a creative spark and link between midfield and strikers that certainly troubled the Bank of England defences.
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