AFC Stoneham 5 Christchurch 0

AFC Stoneham continued to make inroads into their league campaign with a 5-0 win

against Christchurch FC at Stoneham Lane on Saturday. Goals from Oli Jenkins, Tyrell Sampson two from Duarte Martins and one from Alex Welch secured the win.

After a short interlude in play at around eight minutes, Stoneham registered their first effort of the game with a header that tamely rolled into the goalkeepers hands from Duarte Martins after Alex Welch diverted the ball back across the box.. With eleven minutes on the clock, the Purps took the lead with a ball into the box that was laid off by Duarte Martins before Oli Jenkins coolly lobbed the goalkeeper on the half volley.

Christchurch threatened almost immediately after the goal, playing a through ball that came off the Stoneham defender that would proved to be dangerous had Ross Casey not been able to get a hand to the ball and flick it past the post. Alex Welch soon thought he had a golden chance to double his sides lead as Duarte Martins flicked on a long ball that was then laid off by Oli Jenkins to set Welch up, however the goalkeeper narrowed down the angle well to save.

Christchurch almost had the equaliser as half time drew closer as Joe Freak latched onto a through ball with a half volley however he saw his effort hit the post. Alex Welch missed another chance for the home side with a gaping gap in the penalty box however he was unable to adjust himself and keep his header under the bar.

After a quiet period at the start of the second half, Stoneham registered the first effort as a corner ball fell to Oli Jenkins who came agonisingly close, seeing his shot cleared off the line. Stoneham eventually had their second goal midway through the second half as a lovely through ball was played to Lewis Nagle who whipped in a ferocious ball for Duarte Martins to tap home.

Their third followed soon after as the ball was whipped into an unmarked Alex Welch who headed into the roof of the net. As the game drew nearer to a close, Duarte was able to grab his second goal the match as he was able to bring down a pass from Jake Thomson and swivel and drive home.

Tyrell Sampson was able to get amongst the goals before the end of the game after driving home on the half volley to add a fifth and complete the Purps win.

James Phillips , First team manager interview, with Cam Donaldson.

Stoneham vs Christchurch interview transcription:

Me: Another win James, what did you make of that one?

James: Slow burner, real slow burner. We started quite well and obviously got a fairly

early goal, but I wasn’t too happy to be honest. I thought we moved the ball too

slowly and took too many touches. It is always difficult to go from such a high on

Tuesday and play again on the Saturday. I thought we lacked tempo and intensity

but obviously you see the results of that later on in the game as we managed to

speed it up and play a lot quicker, and got a couple of late goals which is good.

Me: Clarkey departed the game at half time and JT came on, what was the

reasoning for that and what did JT bring to the game?

James: Purely tactical, Clarkey has been excellent for the last five to six games but I

just felt our distances between the units were too big and JT is a bit quicker and

reads the game very well so I thought that we could play a higher line. He obviously

also has the quality on the ball to help us tick in possession. So it was both coins

really, defend higher up the pitch and keep more possession.

Me: Five games now where you haven’t conceded and two assists from defenders

today, how pleasing is that?

James: Really, really pleasing. It is something that we have always been good at it,

defensive records. We try and beat it every single season. We had the best

defensive record in the league last year and we are intending to have the same this

year as it gives you a great platform to build on. As I said to you a few weeks ago, it

doesn’t seem to matter which goalkeeper is playing, which centre back is playing,

the whole back four and the whole team is chipping in to be defensively structured

which gives us a platform to score a couple of goals as well.

Me: How nice is it to be able to utilise your squad in the sense of playing players in

different positions for example Jim Orvis playing out wide today, in central midfield

and at full back in previous times?

James: Yeah, massively important. Obviously if you have someone that can play two

or three roles it saves you from having a bigger squad, so that helps. They are all

happy to play where they get told really and the flexibility allows us to change

formation quite regularly. Obviously we ended up in a slightly different shape at the

end there, but it just gives us the flexibility to change games and that is what we

have been able to do.

Me: Thoughts ahead of next week and how good it will be to push further in the cup?

James: Yeah, fingers crossed. It will be a difficult game. We don’t know too much

about them obviously because of the distance involved but we have a few little

scouting reports from them. We expect it to be a physical battle, a tough game, but it

is a challenge that we are all looking forward to. It is exciting when you play a team

that you don’t play every week. They don’t know us, we don’t know them, but may

the best team win and that is all there is.