Chaps outplayed by much changed LPR

Report

After Thursday evening's excellent draw against Hizza Utd, Fronk stuck with a similar formation with Watkins holding the centre of defence, Tomolinson slotting in to left back after missing a huge amount of games through holiday, and Slater on the right. Mosedale and the legend that is Nick Harris held the centre of the pitch just ahead of the defence, with Feasey, N.Hobbis and Hawkeswood ahead of them. A welcome return to the side for Gould, alongside Chaps regular Dowsett running the front line.

Chaps took full advantage of a lazy LPR side, bursting into a 2 goal lead within the first 5 minutes as LPR players inexplicably remained in the dressing room...Gould dispossessed the defender 25 yards out, ran to goal and slotted past the keeper on angle from 12 yards on the fourth minute, with N.Hobbis tapping in from a yard a minute later after excellent work from Dowsett.

LPR, now up to 11 men, hit back with 3 goals in half an hour to take the lead, their tricky wingers and midfielders were doing all sorts of damage to the Chaps back line. A slight re-arrangement to 4–2–2 added a bit of calmness back into the Chaps' side, and the game was a more even affair for the remainder of the first half, with Gould netting from an out swinging corner from slater, jinking his run to the near post ahead of defender to score with chest. 5 goals in 4 games for the Chaps occassional forward. This tied the score at 3–3, but LPR managed to grab a brace of goals to take the lead into half time.

Our founder Farr—a late arrival—replaced Mosedale on the stroke of half time, and added a bit of freshness to the Chaps team. Unfortunately LPR continued to bag the goals, streaming into an 8–3 lead before Chaps managed to pull one back. Superb control from Hawkeswood 40 yards out from goal on the right hand side allowed him to lay the ball off neatly to Feasey, who approached the box and powered in a 30 yard effort for his 4th goal of the season after a long drought.

Gould was denied his hat-trick by the cross bar after an excellent run, and Dowsett was extremely unlucky not to get on the scoresheet himself, only denied by some incredible last-ditch defending from LPR. Dowsett was always 3-on-1 so it was amazing he managed to create so many chances for himself.

Penny was introduced for the remaining 20 minutes, replacing the injured Gould, and was given the rare opportunity of a free-kick on the right side of the box. His powerful, direct left-footed shot was curling into the near post at speed, but the LPR keeper did well to hold onto it. The end of the game was marred by a very poor challenge on Feasey leaving him with certain ankle damage.

The referee's man of the match today went to Nick Hobbis. I give Chap of the Match to another Nick—Nick Harris. Yes it's seems strange to give the award to a defender having conceded 11 goals, but Harris led by example today, taking it upon himself to re-organise the formation early on when it was clear that LPR were causing us all sorts of problems out wide. Though the goals continued to come, Chaps were now more organised, and were simply being beaten by better players, rather than due to playing poorly themselves. At 44 years of age he played the full 90 minutes and remained a positive influence throughout the game. Well done to the Legend!