Men's 1st XI Vs Torbay

Caradon’s men’s 1st XI played their first home game of the season this week hosting Torbay. From the off set Caradon knew this would be a tough match and spent the first 5 minutes defending in their own half.  As the game went on Caradon started to find their way a little, making progressive movements up the pitch but no end result. 

Torbay were looking to catch the home side on the break but either the defenders were to wise to it or Dan Harris worked his magic between the posts. On one occasion the Torbay attack managed to pull the defenders out of position and in a last ditch effort gave away a penalty flick. Unfazed Dan stood in the middle of the sticks, dominated the area and cleared up a messy flick. This pretty much saw out the first half, with neither team making any significant break through. 

Knowing the first goal would be crucial Caradon upped the tempo in the second half. With the midfield battling hard for supremacy tempers started to fly, taking advantage of this Caradon squeezed the ball out from the middle of the pitch and like a training drill isolated the two central defenders, drove the base line before dragging the ball back to the top of the ‘D’. Matt Bell was waiting and with out missing a beat slotted the ball into the far corner past the floundering keeper. 

With the game in their hands Caradon continued to press, claiming a short corner that was coolie dispatched by David Fasey, giving Caradon a two goal lead. The tempers and fatigue levels from both sides started to rise, a couple yellow cards were dished out to both teams for late tackles and poor discipline.  With this Torbay managed to strike back with a short corner, feeling the pressure Caradon had to do something quick, that’s when David Fasey broke through the middle of the pitch, drove into the ‘D’ and spanked the ball past the keeper. 

Torbay were not done however, striking back against the tired Caradon team with five minutes to go. Caradon tired to set up a game management style of play to see out the remainder of the game, but no everyone got the memo as a couple of the defenders were seen around and in the Torbay ‘D’ but they dug deep and managed to see out the game securing a 3-2 win from a tough, rough and ugly game.