Home vs Dulwich Village Orange 12Nov23

Match report by Ciaran Larkin

After a last minute winner last week, we were hoping for a similar outcome this week against our opposition Dulwich Village Orange. This side are up with us at the top end of the table, so as per usual it wasn’t an easy game but in our league there are no real easy games; each side has a unique style of play which makes them good, and the side who we were playing today were very fluid on the ball, they could easily move it around, and we needed to know how to combat it.

The game started and they came out and pressed us from the off. The game started with us trying to find our rhythm and they got the first goal as a bouncing ball went to Romeo, who mis-controlled it and had it taken off him by their striker who tapped the ball into an open net for 1-0 to Dulwich. The game for us afterwards started to become more controlled, as we found our way back into it and got our equaliser through Alex who won the ball back about 40 yards out, saw the keeper off his line and lobbed him for 1-1 and his first goal for Parkwood. After this, we got more and more into the game and were creating several chances, and got our lead when a ball from Jake, a result of a free kick, found Arthur who squared it to Matt for his first goal for Parkwood. The lead was then doubled as Jude ran through a gap between 2 defenders before chipping the goalkeeper and the ball bounced in off the post for 3-1 before half time. The second half started and all we had to do was the same as before. This time we switched so that one midfielder would hold instead of rotating, giving us more defensive solidity at a cost of offensive support, and this worked for the second half as Dulwich found it very difficult to break us down. This was the same throughout the half as we weren’t creating much but were keeping Dulwich at arm's length, and until the final minute when they got a free kick from the right, was crossed in and rebounded off of Matt for 3-2, yet the full time whistle came right after and we had collected another good 2 points to put us back in the title race. Next week though we’re against Hayden which is never an easy game and we know we need to be well up for it. Well done to Leo for his Man of the Match performance who was key to helping us win this game.