Three goals and a clean sheet on the opening day, you couldn’t really have asked more from the Cooks as Coventry United are defeated at Compton Park.
Saturday 29th July 2023
UNITED COUNTIES LEAGUE – PREMIER DIVISION SOUTH
COGENHOE UNITED (1) 3 COVENTRY UNITED (0) 0
Cooks;
Channell 4
Parkes 70
Hall 82
Att; 95
First game of the season and always a day to look forward to with both excitement and nerves. The lads had prepared well throughout pre-season and spirits were good as they set off on another season.
A windy day at Compton Park and with all the recent rain the pitch looked in great condition.
The lads set out on a fast start and forced a corner early on. After a great delivery that wasn’t properly cleared the ball fell to Stan Channell 12 yards out and lashed home a great strike into the top corner. 1-0 after 4 minutes was the perfect start.
With the wind blowing in the young Cooks’ faces the defending was always going to be a little trickier, but they seemed to handle that well. A shot from outside the box had the Coventry United keeper making an unorthodox save, but the scores remained 1-0 to the Cooks. A heart in mouth moment came when a Coventry United player (Sami Muzaffar) found himself goal side of the defence and in the box. After a challenge the player went to ground, which we thought was a penalty from our angle, but the referee adjudged the player to have dived. He was a lot closer than us to be fair. An injury to Damo meant we needed to reshuffle at half time.
HT 1-0
Second half got underway with Dalton in an unfamiliar left wing role. The visitors seemed to start the second half brighter and the Cooks were a little slow out of the blocks compared to the first half. An unbelievable block by Keiran Mobbs when an equaliser looked certain kept the scores at 1-0 then
after a tweak to the positions of a couple of players we seemed get more control of the game, but at 1-0 it was still edgy. Then on 70 mins Stan made a great run against the left back and found himself in the box and pulled the ball back for Alex Parkes to take one touch past the defender and one more to finish clinically in the bottom corner. 2-0 Cooks and a little breathing space.
The Cooks were now managing the game really well led by new skipper Harley Mallard and looked more in control now.
But at 2-0 it’s always an awkward score line and great save from Adam North to deny a back post effort was needed to keep the scores that way.
Then on 82 minutes substitute Jamie Hall curled an absolute worldly from the edge of the box into the top corner skimming the post, that’s how accurate it was. 3-0 and game now surely put to bed. The remainder of the game was about game management and trying to keep a clean sheet, which for all the efforts of the lads was also thoroughly deserved. And that they did winning 3-0 at full time.
To a man every player put in a real team effort to get the opening day 3 points for the game. There was a genuine willingness to work for each other and real professional performance was delivered. Really. really pleased to start opening day with a win.
Report kindly supplied by Andy Batty.
Cooks; 13. Adam North 2. Lewis Green 3. Damian Osoimoeijokhian (sub Dalton Leon) 4. Alex Parkes 5. Ben Dimond 6. Harley Mallard © 7. Stan Channell (sub 17. Ollie Taylor) 8. Callum Farmer (sub 14, Nathan Bell-Toxtle) 9. Jack Connor (sub 15. Jamie Hall) 10. Bailey Weatherly (sub Charlie Pearson) 11. Kieron Mobbs.
Red & Greens; 1. Declyn Duggan 2. Jack Wells 3. Ruari O’Boyle (sub 14. Enoch Opayinka 65) 4. Charlie Morgan (sub 16. Patrick McGrory 65) 5. Ethan Bayham 6. Jake Williams 7. Sam Rodber (sub 17. Edgars Nikolajevs 75) 8. Zak Tellyn (sub 12. Mason Platts 75) 9. Jamal Adams 10. Joe Blowers 11. Sami Muzaffar (sub 15. Harry Wilson 75).
Referee; Jake Bloom
Assts; Gary Halliday & Kenny Wells.
