Old Meadonians 5 Old Tenisonians 0

Meads coast into second round of the cup

London Old Boys Senior Cup

Old Meadonians progressed into the second round of the London Old Boys Senior Cup, the A.F.C. league cup, with a silky smooth display of power backed by ruthless finishing.

Although Saturday’s visitors to Riverside Lands, Old Tenisonians, improvers from two divisions below, never stopped battling, they found themselves with too big a gulf to bridge and the most they could hope for was to struggle in vain to escape Meads’ enveloping virtual tourniquet which cut off their supply of the ball and rendered them all but impotent.

In the past Meads have allowed opponents to have as much possession as they like in their own half but nullified any advantage by denying them passage through mid-field. It follows that a must have accessory to deep possession is a cutting edge up front, otherwise you’re whistling in the wind.

On Saturday Meads were able to play the ball across the back to stretch their visitors’ somewhat ramshackle defensive structure, mask the source of any thrust and create space into which front runners Ed Glover and Peter Eguae eagerly sped. If that wasn’t an option there was always the more conventional outlet via wing-backs Misha Mantel and Andrew Swann gliding up and down the flanks to usher the ball forward. Both of these players were to show that they also knew where the goal was with Swann being just over at nil all and Mantel doing like-wise the other side of the interval.

Having said that, it was central mid-fielder Matt Tull who made the break after twenty-five minutes, bursting through the middle to be upended in the area. Glover converted the kick. Ten minutes later Swann got the second, cutting in from the right, squeezing the ball between two defenders, rounding both, beating the advancing keeper to the ball and slotting in from a narrow angle.

It was business as usual on the restart with careful approach-work and fifteen minutes sustained pressure rewarded with the hosts’ third when sub John Shea spotted the visitors’ keeper off the line and produced a tailor-made lob from twenty-five yards. Ace poacher Craig Jones followed his trade to bag number four with fifteen minutes to go and then capped his cameo second half appearance in the dying minutes by volleying in Tull’s driven cross. Ali McCombe was named MoM.

Team: Robinson, Palmer, McCombe, Pointer, A. Swann, Tull, N. Jones, Quinn, (C. Jones), Mantel, Eguae, (Shea), Glover, (Barry).

Old Meadonians 5 Old Tenisonians 0 (Glover pen., A. Swann, Shea, C. Jones 2)

November 22, 2011