14 Dec - North 1 ROVERS 4 - Nightingale cool as a cucumber on a greasy battered burger of a pitch!!! report by Chris Lihou

In a hard fought match Rovers unbeaten Corbet Cup Squad prevailed 4-1 against a resilient North outfit.

With a strong cross wind howling across the pitch and in driving rain, North resembled one of those flat greasy battered burgers you get from the local chippy. Chances fell to Robin, Browning, Nightingale, Netherton and Philpott all hacked into flying bodies or brilliantly turned away by the Keeper.

North continued to defend stoutly and in the 17th minute they broke up field chasing a long punt up field which ended up with their number 9 one on one with Arrol who stood up tall and big but a cool finish in the bottom bin gave him no chance.

Fazakerley then started to pull the strings in central midfield and just before halftime picked a loose ball up on the right side, cut in on the edge of the box and blazed a left footer that moved so much the Keeper didn’t know whether it was New York or New Year.

A couple of changes saw top scorer Browning succumbing to a niggling knee injury replaced by Stokes and a tactical switch to nullify North’s dangerous counter attacks saw Hunt coming on to bolster the back line. Within 10 minutes a low shot from inside the box by Robin squirmed under the Keeper to make it 2-1. Now firing on all cylinders Stokes ripped the left side apart creating chances for Whitmore and Nightingale.

Such was the domination that even Howitt strolled up from the back slipped in by his hard working defensive partner Le Tocq, to hammer a shot which cleared the bar by inches. This relentless pressure soon told and Robin brilliantly converted smashing the ball past the muddied but unbowed North Keeper to make it 3-1.

Nightingale then embarked on a mazy run to the right of the box which took him past 4 North players, slotting past the keeper and the despairing lunge of a North defender – cool as a cucumber  - 4-1 to the Blues.

8th Nov North 0 ROVERS 6 - Great defending, controlled midfield as Rovers keep up their 100% record

Rovers continue their winning record and achieve their first clean sheet of the season, in no small part thanks to some great goalkeeping from James Arrol and some brilliant defensive work from Scott Howitt. Howitt had to move into the centre back position after the news that the normal central defender, Matt Hood was at A&E having some metal fragments taken out of his heel, Matt came down to support the team later on and will be ready for the next game.

The game started a bit slow on the cut up Northfield and was a game of two halves with a very strong wind but James Browning got the ball in the back of the net after 12 minutes with a great strike after being played in by Max Robin. This settled the team but they were finding it hard to play their normal cut and thrust passing game with a sea of chocolate and blue shirts camped on the edge of their area. North played a lot of players at the back and Rovers found it hard to break them down but 2-0 arrived from a Robin corner after 17 minutes and Anthony Stokes reacted quickest to get on the end of it and Rovers were now in control of the game. This was Stokesy’s first start of the season and he had a very good game on the left side of midfield, terrorising their right back for the whole game with his wing wizardry.

Tom Hunt made his second start of the season and played very well at right back and can be proud of the fact that this was our first clean sheet of the season as we have up till now found it easy to score but have leaked a few goals so well done to the whole team and let’s hope this continues. Howitt commanded proceedings at the back and had his best game of the season, no one was going to get past him today and he is following in his brother Blair’s foot steps as Blair is the tough tackling captain of our Under 16 side.

Ambrose Netherton had a solid game at left back even though he is used to playing further up the field, he showed his strong tackling but also linked up well with Stokesy ahead of him and was involved in some of our more fluid passing plays.

Arrol was a huge part of this clean sheet performance as although he didn’t have a huge amount to do he did have 3 one on one situations that didn’t phase him and he showed the fruits of his goalkeeper coaching that he has had from Chris Lihou, who couldn’t be at the game today as he opted to watch Chelsea vs Man Utd instead, no commitment.

The next goal came from our hard working right midfielder, Tom Nightingale when he made a great run out wide and was found with a cutting pass from Robin, Nightingale showed great skill to control with his first touch and the next touch saw the ball bursting the back of the net for 3-0.

3-0 at half time but it could have been a lot more if Rover’s Steven Gerrard had hit the target with his long range efforts, Will Fazakerley was winning the midfield battle but just couldn’t get on the score sheet today. He had a number of rocket shots that zipped past the keeper but also past the post but this hopefully won’t be the case in our next game against Vale Rec.

The 2nd half saw Charles Cooney and Ollie Philpott come on as we wanted to ensure our full squad were part of the game and they both did a great job. Charles was like a man possessed in central midfield and was winning every challenge, sometimes using the shoulder a bit too much until the ref asked for this to stop. He won everything in the middle and tried to use the electric pace of Philpott on the wing but the conditions were hampering Philpott’s forward running and he wasn’t able to get onto as many passes as he is used to.

4-0 came on 43 minutes from a nice passing move through the team and Stokesy set up Browning for his second goal and he was now chasing his hat trick to keep up his record of a hat trick in every game. Birthday boy Fin Whitmore came on and gave a very disciplined display in central midfield, working hard and playing some very neat forward passes through the North defence.

Another 8 minutes passed before the 5th goal came and captain, Robin saw the benefits of his tough tackling after dropping back into the middle, he got the ball in the North half and went on a solo run finishing with a thunder bolt that hit the under side of the bar before going in.

The game was well under control now but North had a free kick on the edge of the area after tough tackling Howitt timed things slightly wrong and gave them an opportunity to get a goal back. Arrol lined up his wall and next thing he knew the ball went sailing over his head into the back of the net but much to the disgust of the North coaches, the ref brought the ball back as he hadn’t blown his whistle, Arrol collected the next shot and we moved on.

5 minutes to go and Browning was itching for his hat trick, Robin played a ball into him and there is was, a great strike that made it 6-0, hat trick for Browning and another superb victory for the mighty blues.

Corbet Cup Leading Scorers