Forget a game of two halves, this was a game of three thirds. The first third belonged to the away side as they produced their most cohesive football of the season to race into a three goal lead. Jack Neill tapped in twice, his first goals for the club, in the first nine minutes to round off two fine team moves with the second involving six players including the goalkeeper. Ryan Morgan dragged two decent shooting opportunities wide, Remi Ogunbayo missed a fine chance at the near post and Finn Edwards had a low drive well saved as Ruislip continued to dominate. The third goal did arrive on 25 minutes as Caleb Watts flicked on Luke Massingham’s corner at the near post for the goal line poacher Eli Soque to nudge the ball home for his fifth goal of the season. Within a minute however, Bourne End pulled a goal back. No Ruislip player took responsibility as a free kick from halfway was allowed to travel deep into their box and with Harry Sandiford rooted to his line, the ball was expertly guided home by a home attacker. A minute later, Sandiford redeemed himself as he pushed away a free header that was destined for the bottom corner. However he had no chance three minutes before the break as a 25 yard dipping shot nestled in the back of his net. Within six minutes Ruislip had gone from having the game in their pocket to hanging on frantically to keep their lead at half time. The second half started the way the first half finished and six minutes in, Sandiford was slow to react to a through ball and was only rescued by a desperate last ditch challenge from Massingham. The resultant corner caused more chaos in the Ruislip rearguard as first Harrison Deas blocked a goal bound effort on the line before Sandiford produced an excellent save from the rebound. It seemed a matter of time before the next goal came. In fact, it was only four minutes but surprisingly it came at the other end. Neill stood up a cross that Morgan flicked on for Edwards to nod home at the back post. The game game swung again and on 52 minutes, Deas, arriving in the six yard box, deftly nodded in Massingham’s near post corner to make it 5-2 No, I’m not sure why he was there either! Ogunbayo, having his best game of the season, then planted home number six as Neill helped on Watts’ through ball to now once and for all seal the win. Two further long range Bourne End goals in the last ten minutes, the second of which would have again disappointed Sandiford, gave the scoreline a slightly fairer look. All said and done, this was a useful three points for Ruislip especially as they were missing three key players. Bourne End will trouble a lot of sides this season especially with their shooting from distance but all of Ruislip’s goals were well crafted and clinically finished with each involving a number of players. As such they deserved the win. MoM A number of players had influential games, Caleb Watts and Jack Neill were both prominent in the first 25 minutes, Harrison Deas and Luke Massingham played their part at both ends and Remi Ogunbayo was bright throughout. But Finn Edwards rarely has a bad game and he does his job wherever he’s asked to play and today he was consistently good in an inconsistent team performance. He also scored the fourth goal which was the key moment of the game Paul Massingham 07841 699 431
