The match kicked off on a crisp morning the boys were still all excited and smiley from their cup victory, it was nice to see all of the boys after a long season still laughing and joking, this season has certainly seen the boys come together as a team and all of the back biting and falling out with each other seems to have passed, and they have started to realise that in a team, you lose as a team and also win as a team.
The match was only seconds into it when Retford had their first break the little forward dinked past two in midfield, and was left one on one with Alex Dawes, but as so many times this season Alex stood strong and put in the vital tackle right at the correct time and cleared the ball up the pitch, from this point the Trojans took the half by the scruff of the neck and the first goal came in the first few minutes Tyler Arundel brought the ball out of defence played a great ball to Nojus Lukjanovas who crossed the ball over to Dean Simpson who did a Vardy flick with his heal behind the other leg into the bottom corner a great goal to make it 1 – 0, Nojus cropped up again on the second goal this time with all his own work he danced around the midfield got himself to the edge of the area and outside of the boot into the corner to make it 2, Next was a little bit of magic from Troy Christie he played a lovely one two with Jack Oldfield and from distance played a magnificent ball to the back post and who was there David Palcu to put the ball into the corner to make it 3, Then a little magic from Tyler again, who picked up the ball in defence ran past one, then two, then three you sensed this might be special he was urged to shoot by the crowd and did just that smashed the ball in only to see it agonisingly strike the post, the final goal of the half came when the over confident Trojans were marauding forwards to see Retford catch them on the break by this time Alex was off the field and as happens so often if Alex isn’t there no one stays at the back and this happened again in this instance Retford were 3 on one with Oliver Walsh in goal and he was left with no chance the score at half time 3 – 1.
The second half began and the Trojans got on top again this time winning a corner David curling the ball in and little Max Oldfield getting himself a rare headed goal in fairness he took the goal excellently to make it 4 – 1, the next noticeable point was when the Trojans got another corner this time a similar cross saw Troy get his head on the ball but instead of shooting cushioned the header down lovely to Max who cut inside and dispatched the goal excellently. Then again the defence had problems this time with no organisation at all Retford broke and no one was picking anyone up and a hard cross beat everyone fell to the striker who shot towards goal and with Oliver beat David stuck a foot out to try and clear but the deflection went into the net to make it 5 – 2, this then saw the reintroduction to the game of Alex and Nojus to try and get some shape back, but it was the midfield who then shone, Troy was up next Jack played a short ball into his feet he turned and beat one with his skill, wrestled off the second and hit the ball from distance straight into the net to make it 6 – 2, then Troy became provider again this time sliding in a great ball into Akiva who couldn’t miss to make it 7 – 2, the Manager then swapped things around and let Alex and Jack go up front for a spell, and within seconds of these two not being in defence Retford broke and there wasn’t a defender in sight to make it 7 – 3, the next goal came when Nojus picked up the ball on the break passed to Alex who looked like he was going to shoot but instead cut inside and laid the ball back to Nojus who was left with an easy tap in to make it 8 – 3, the final goal came when Retford broke again and again there wasn’t a defender in sight to leave poor Oliver in goal with no chance, he had somehow let in 4 goals with not one of them being his fault, but in all honesty the Trojans never looked uncomfortable the whole game they stepped it up when they needed to well done boys.
A special mention has to go to man of the match Tyler Arundel who had a great game, I unfairly (to a Leicester fan) called him Paulo Wanchop last week, when this week the way he was sweeping up he looked more like the great Lothar Matthäus (is that better?)