What game !, What a performance ! and What a finish to the season !
Having scored just one goal in the previous nine matches and only 14 goals all season, Garswood went nap with, FIVE, absolutely tremendous strikes in a pulsating end to end final game. The match started badly for Garswood who found themselves 2 nil down and but for some super saves from keeper Adam BOWERS could have been even further behind. Then, with the seconds ticking away towards half time, Tyler DUFFY swung in a perfect corner, striker Tyler PRESCOT, found space inside the penalty area and forced the ball over the line…off his hip. Garswood where back in the game and the greatest come-back since Liverpool’s famous 2005 Champions League Final win was on the cards.
Tyler DUFFY later stated that his corner technique was all down to the coaching he had been given over the past couple of years and Tyler PRESCOT confirmed the ‘hip’ was one they regularly practised in training.
Into the second half and Garswood not only equalised, they actually took the lead with strikes from Daniel WHITE and Jack O’BRIEN. Daniel scoring his first goal in years, and Jack getting onto the end of a great passing move, he coolly slotted the ball past the advancing keeper. Jack admitted that his calm un-flustered finish was down to the great work done by the coaches at the Club.
Garswoods lead was short lived as an Eastleigh corner found its way into the goal, although keeper Adam BOWERS was convinced it never crossed the line, a passing Russian linesman waved his flag and the goal was given. Adam later said he felt he had let the coaching staff down, “They’ve worked tirelessly with me all year on crosses but there was a swirling wind, the sun was in my eye’s and I could hear my dad singing Man City’s ‘Blue Moon’ behind the goal, it was all off putting”
Garswood managed to lift themselves and in a thrilling finish in which both sides had chances Daniel WHITE incredibly scored his second of the game. A direct free kick was award just outside the Eastleigh area and struck home with the force of a ‘Jimmy Case’ special leaving the keeper no chance. Daniel said the Coaches have been working on my free kicks all season and when I was told to step up and take this one I knew exactly what I was going to do with it, although I’ve never seen ‘Jimmy Case’ I know he was a great Liverpool player.
The FIFTH and final goal came way of an unfortunate own goal by Eastleigh, Garswood midfielder Thomas HUGHES tried to claim the goal after his tame shot was deflected by a defender onto the post, then hit the keeper before rolling into the net. Although Thomas claimed his shot was ‘always going in’ replays show its was going well wide. His father Paul HUGHES, a life long Everton fan, claimed it was a conspiracy “I’ve seen it happen before to my beloved Everton, in the 1977 F.A Cup semi-final against Liverpool we had a goal taken away from Bryan Hamilton that robbed us of a place in the final and then in 2005 ‘Big Dunc’ had a goal taken away from him against Villareal in the Champions League qualifiers, we would have gone on to win the cup both times, I just know we would, and we would have stopped Liverpool being the greatest British team of all time” “Although I’m not bitter, this goal could have set our Thomas on his way as a striker like Brett Angell or Stuart Barlow”.
Although not on the score sheet, Luke SIMPSON and Joe DINLEY ran endlessly throughout the game, Luke told everyone that his dad thought it was the best team performance he had seen since Liverpool beat Man Utd 3-1. Defender Harry SCOTT, played a blinder as the last line of defence as Garswood went all out attack. With a new ‘Diamond’ formation developed over the course of two friendlies and the two strikers playing tandem the team finally bonded after losing 19 of the previous 21 matches. Joe DINLEY was at a loss to explain how he has failed to score all season even after the excellent coaching, he said “My dad told me, ‘ Son, It only takes a second to score a goal’, I just haven’t been able to find that second”.
Harry Scott told everyone how his dad had been reading coaching manuals the night before the last game, ‘The Art Of Goal Scoring Made Easy’ and ‘The Diamond Formation….. A Guaranteed Success’. Harry said ” He’s had them all season but he only read them last night, we could have won the league and everything”
Although he couldn’t be at the game head coach Kev O’Neil sent the following message to the B squad players
“Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure…than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat”.
Kev message to his assistant Ian Scott was “Acknowledge that you failed, draw your lessons from it, and use it to your advantage to make sure it never happens again.”
Here’s to next season
