Having been drawn against 1st division opposition in our last two 1st round draws in the cup last season, and holding our own throughout, Kurt have a rallying speech to the boys today to fire them up for todays game and let them know we had every faith that they can compete at this level, even though our season hasn’t started how would would have hoped.

Achilles started the ticker with a couple of early attacks, but Sudbury started to come alive and get involved in the game with a few boys playing in slightly different roles to what they would normally play due to our injury list as it is.

In Sudbury’s first attack of the game, Leo found space in Achilles penalty box before getting his shot away which was well saved by the Achilles keeper, and resulted in a corner for Sudbury.

From the in swinging corner, Achilles didn’t clear their lines and there was our club Vice Captain, wearing the armband today in the absence of Tommy, to drill home and open his account for the season.

1-0.

Sudbury really started to take control of the game and were finding lots of space down the right with attack after attack, but couldn’t find an end product.

Achilles were still causing danger with their attacks, but when they did get passed our defence, they were being met by Will who was standing strong and even taking a whack or two in the process.

Sudbury were starting to play some nice football and a nicely worked move through the middle saw Stan just stray offside when Leo slipped him through.

Shortly after, Stan found space down the right and wiped in a lovely cross that was met by Leo, but he couldn’t keep his effort down and it went over the bar.

Half time 1-0

Sudbury started the second half much quicker and it looked like we were going to double our lead early on, but the Achilles keeper managed to smoother the effort at Stanley’s feet in their 1 on 1 duel.

We didn’t have to wait long for our goal. A quick throw from George found Max in space who laud it back to George who curled in a brilliant LEFT FOOTED cross, I told you that you have a left foot George!, that Stanley controlled and got his shot away. The keeper did brilliant to save down low to his right, but he couldn’t hold on to it and Aiden did brilliantly to sense the danger and drill home to open his scoring for the club, making it 2-0.

Achilles now needing to push forward looked like they would break through, but there was Jude with a crunching tackle to stop the danger.

Achilles were still looking for a way back into the game and had a corner that they swung in. With 2 players pressuring him, Will took control of the situation and collected the ball taking the pressure off for his team.

The final few minutes started to become more of a physical battle, but our boys stood firm.

Another Achilles counter looked like they would get through on goal, but there was Jack with a last gasp tackle to save his team, and an almost carbon copy happened a few moments later with Achilles calling for a foul, but Jack timed his tackles perfectly.

Confusion in the Achilles penalty area almost lead to a 3rd goal when Leo intercepted a clearance that Aiden collected and crossed in for Leo to get a glancing head to but he couldn’t guide it goalwards.

Achilles broke again, but there was our captain to put in a solid tackle and stopped the break.

Full time 2-0

Well done boys. You should all be massively proud of your performance today, and more importantly, we’ve finally broken our losing streak when playing on the 3G.

On to round 2 of the cup we go.

Well done to today’s Man Of The Match, Aiden. A solid performance and a goal too. Can’t ask for much more.