| With the rain still pouring down
Spartak arrived with a new keeper and a very defensive looking 12 man squad. This
meant someone was going to have to play slightly out of position and the shortage of
midfielders meant Withers was pushed up alonside Bren in the centre of midfield. The
other notable difference was the new keeper, Fricker junior playing his first game
for Spartak.
Fricker senior won the toss and, feeling his team
hadn't warmed up properly, decided to change ends. Spartak started slowly and
struggled to get in the game which resulted in Meldreth taking the early lead. A
cross from the right evaded both centre backs and let in the Meldreth striker whose
shot was well saved by Paul but the rebound fell nicely to their second striker who
stroked it home. Minutes later an identical thing happened again but this time a
brilliant double save by Paul prevented Spartak going 2 down inside 10 minutes.
After these 2 early shocks Spartak got into the game and with Andrew
and Rich getting to grips with Meldrth's strikers Spartak started to create chances
of their own. The one notable chance was when Clive 'beat' the offside trap and was
one on one with keeper only to hit it straight at him. Half time came with Spartak
1-0 down but spirits were high despite this and all were keen to get back out for
the second half.
With the change of ends came a change of fortune.
It was all Spartak from the moment the whistle blew. The defense was solid, the
midfield was winning everything in the air and on the ground and the strikers
were... well the strikers were trying. This domination was rewarded when pressure
from Dave Fricker resulted in their full back losing the ball, he shot past the
keeper but it canoned of the post only to rebound to Clive who shot home under
pressure from the defense. A second chance soon came this time to Dave from a long
ball from the keeper but he scuffed his shot well wide much to the delight of the
away team. Then Neil was challenged hard which resulted in him having to leave the
pitch and with no other subs it meant Spartak had to play the remaining 20 minutes
with 10 men.
This however seemed to be the spark Spartak needed
to take a firm grip on this game. Not one to enjoy being mocked by a bunch of t**ts
Dave was determined to make amends for his earlier miss and soon did. Again creating
the chance by pressurising the defense and spotting the keeper well off his line
chipped it in to the vacant goal. His celebration was slightly demented but I think
he made his point.
The third goal came, despite Spartak sitting
back, with a move down the right which started with Matt who passed to Clive who
went down the line and crossed and Dave slid in with a hopeful lunge and poked it
past the keeper. The final whistle came much to the delight of Spartak and the
disgust of Meldreth (haha). Spartak earned their third win in a row with a very
good, spirited performance. | 
Centenary Cup