Anvils hit for 4 at home to Horsham YMCA

After six weeks away it was good to see the green green grass of home again or so we thought, the surface looked reasonable, the weather was bitterly cold but at least it was dry, more fresh faces in the team, could this be the turning point of our season one wondered?

The first five minutes were fairly quiet as both teams probed for an early opening, the visitors being the first to open up the game when from their first real attack a mistake in the Anvil defence let in right flankman Dave Brown to cut inside and fire past debutant keeper Andy Greaves. 0-1 YM.

On 12 mins ex Anvil duo the Sullivan’s combined to earn the first corner of the match, come 15 and from another corner Brown blazed well wide, followed on 22 by the same player whom this time could only find keeper Greaves.

On 24 Anvils Ciaran Steers out right put in a determined break down the right, finishing with a fierce cross across the face of goal, but with no one up to take advantage, just after Sam Cane then went into the officials notebook for the first yellow, other then a Geo Wallis attempt on goal it remained rather quiet on the Anvil attacking front, though Jeffery Mahadoo tried his luck from 30 yds which was safely gathered by YM keeper Mark Fox.

For the rest of the half it was all YM with next fullback Dan Evans on a run but firing wide, the experienced Dean Carden whom with Nick and Dan Sullivan were working a neat little triangle at times, then set up the outstanding Ant Hibbert to fire across the face, as the ending of the half neared, but not before Josh Brown had his shot brilliantly turned away by keeper Greaves to keep the deficit down to just a single goal. HT 0-1 YM.

Second half started brightly for the Anvils giving rise to an interesting half, but controversy was just round the corner with Cane and keeper Fox going for the same ball well outside the box and close to the touch line resulting in Fox crashing into the back of Cane and falling to the ground. Unbelievably the referee delivered a further yellow to Cane from 30 yards away from the incident and despite keeper Fox claiming no foul Cane receiving another yellow followed by the red and off.

The Anvils then had to endure 40 mins of the second half with 10 men and dropped deeper & deeper allowing YM to force the play in the Anvils half. On the hour mark Nick Sullivan then set up Brown but his shot could not beat the outstanding Greaves, and so it went on with YM getting well on top with Luke Gedling having his shot pushed over by Greaves, followed by keeping out sub Taylor Smiths shot, it was just a question of time before the inevitable happened and on 73 Dan Sullivan broke thro to fire past the diving Greaves. 0-2 YM

The Anvils then threw on all three subs in an attempt to salvage something from the game, but to no avail as YM continued to press and on 84 Nick Sullivan’s pace opened up the Anvil defence and with his first shot blocked managed to collect the rebound and tuck the ball away. 0-3 YM.

Minutes later with sub Taylor Smith driving home the final nail to end a somewhat onesided 2nd period. FT 0-4 YM.

Team: Andy Greaves, Blair Cooney, Hass Shurmani (Sonny Barton), James Day, Owen Roberts, Alex Reid (Lee Thomas), Ciaran Steers, Sam Cane, Jeffery Mahadoo, George Wallis, Martin Mutungi (Ryan Taylor).
MOM: Andy Greaves Attn: 50