Royals Match Report 2005-06

Impressive Royals gel immediately to hammer the Arms

Royals 10-1 Craven Arms

A brilliant late summer morning found the re-christened "Royals", in their splendid new royal blue kit, open the season against local rivals Craven Arms, a team which last season proved a formidable opponent indeed. The Royals thus took to the field expecting a tough battle.
In a similar match at the start of the previous season, the team, suffered a dispirited defeat against a rampant Craven Arms. What a difference a year makes! The Royals fielded almost the same formation as a year ago. But Craven Arms were missing some of their stronger players, having lost them due to their age. Craven Arms found it difficult to break out of their half of the field as the physically taller, stronger and (especially) faster Royals claimed and reclaimed possession with ease. Once the Royals got their passing game going, goal followed goal.

The first few minutes already saw some near misses for the Royals. From two excellent corners catapulted in by Hearle, Carless-Turland and Lewis headed just wide. But such was the dominance of the Royals that a clutch of goals was inevitable. The first one came from a Hearle cross which was passed on by Lewis to Carless-Turland who shot past the Craven Arms keeper. A beautifully crafted goal which looked so easy. This was soon followed by some clever multiple passing between Smith and Hearle which opened up space for Hearle to unleash one of his trademark powerful shots from far out which left the Craven Arms keeper grasping thin air. More near misses followed while the few attacks launched by Craven Arms were readily dealt with by Riley and Robinson.
Craven Arms actually found it difficult to break out of their own half as the Royals dominated the mid-field and launched attack after attack. One stunning string of passes ended with a Craven Arms defender, in a desperate attempt to clear, miscuing and the ball ending in the Craven Arms goal bringing the score to 3-0. The first half ended with a forceful run by Lewis down the right flank, shrugging off a number of tackles and crossing to the waiting Carless-Turland who once more gave the Craven Arms keeper no chance. The first half ended 4-0 with Holtz in the Royals goal not having a single save to make. 

At half-time Manager Smith had nothing but praise for his team. He encouraged them to intensify their one-touch passing movement and to be quick on the second ball. 

The second half brought more of the same. Good passing movements by the Royals ended with six more goals being scored to bring the final tally to 10. Lewis opened the second half account with what appeared an easy goal to make it 5-0.
As it was a very warm morning and the Royals were playing full blast, Manager Smith regularly rested some players and Groom was frequently involved. He scored the sixth goal from another of Hearle's excellent corners.
Two more goals followed in quick succession, one by Carless-Turland, the other by Lewis.
Somewhat surprisingly, in the light of what had gone before, Craven Arms produced one splendid passing movement, reminiscent of their form last season. It caught the Royals' defence off guard and ended with a powerful shot on goal which left Holtz with no chance. This made it 8-1. But it proved an isolated event. Though there were a few more attacks on the Royals' goal in the second half, none came to anything as Riley and Robinson defended with great assurance. Two more goals were scored by the Royals, one by Carless-Turland who intercepted a goal kick and dribbled past the Craven Arms goal keeper, the other by Lewis. He latched on to a good pass from Smith, swivelled and shot past the keeper. 

An excellent all-round performance, albeit against a weak team. 

Team: Cameron Holtz, Simon Riley, Dominic Robinson, Rory Smith (c), Joe Hearle, Tom Lewis, Harvey Carless-Turland. Sub Ed Groom.