Middlesex County Cup, 3rd Round
When LNER flew out of the blocks it looked like it might turn out to be a long morning for the depleted Ruislip squad. However, Omari Reynolds and Mark Webb, with their tenacity and work rate and Finn Edwards, with his ball carrying, quickly stamped their authority on central midfield and from this point on Ruislip assumed control of proceedings and never let up til the final whistle. All over the pitch, individual battles were won by a player in burgundy and all that was missing from what would have a been a near perfect team performance was a clinical edge in front of goal. In the last round, Lennox Kedman had helped himself to a hat trick inside the opening 10 minutes. This time however he missed 3 gilt edged chances in the first 20 minutes including one where he only needed to guide the ball into an empty net but instead he thrashed at it and sent it flying into the neighbouring postcode. The screw however was being turned and Charlie Coshall and Ryan Morgan both came close to opening the scoring. That honour fell to Eli Soque 5 minutes before the break as he latched onto a hopeful Reynolds’ hook forward to cleverly poke the ball past the onrushing keeper for his fourth County Cup goal in 2 games. The goal had been coming and the only surprise was that it was not added to.
The second half saw a thoroughly professional display from the away side. The tireless Coshall maybe should’ve made more of 2 very presentable chances. Remi Ogunbayo was a clipped toenail away from finishing off Webb’s thrilling run and cross and a number of long range efforts flashed wide of the uprights but the visitors dominated play to such an extent that a respectable LNER side were restricted to just 2 half chances in the whole game as when on the rare occasions when Ruislip’s midfield was bypassed, the back three of Ben Higgins, Luke Massingham and in particular the classy Lewis Crowley snuffed out any further threat. A more comprehensive 1 goal win would be hard to find.
MoM an outstanding team display but three boys really caught the eye. Lewis Crowley was fault free in defence but games are often won and lost in the middle of the park and because they are very much a partnership it’s hard to look beyond the joint performances of Omari Reynolds and Mark Webb