Match 3 - Semi or Bust

As the first of the three final matches, we knew that a win would see us through to the semi-final. But, conditions were not conducive to good football as a strong wind blew down the length of the pitch. The locals claimed it was cold, but to us it was a pleasant summer's evening as Hulme and the American School of Doha took to the field.

Hulme played with the wind in the first half and struggled to deal with its effect on the ball. Both full backs Jack “Batter It” Flannagan and Hanaan “Hammer” Awais tried to play the ball down the channels but Ryan Hall and Danyaal Naeem struggled to catch up with it as it was carried on the breeze. Both teams struggled in the conditions and Hulme appeared edgy knowing that a win would see them through, so there was no real pattern to the game. As a side, Hulme sat too deep and gave ASD too much space. As messages went on to the field to push up Adam “Lone Ranger” Wilk, began to put the back four under pressure and encouraged by this Ryan Hall picked the pocket of the left full back, rampaged into the box and slid the ball past the despairing keeper to make it 1-0 to Hulme. This should have buoyed the team, but they continued to struggle to get a flow to the play because of the extenuating circumstances. 1-0 at half time.

The half time team talk consisted of getting the team to push on and squeeze the play and in fairness in the second half things improved. Declan Dabrowski, Ellis Forshaw and Aaron Rogers pushed on in the middle of the park, and as Danyaal “Drimp” Naeem threw up off the pitch changes were made: Hamzah "Tonto" Aslam replaced the Lone Ranger and Ben Walton replaced Danyaal. ASD continued to knock the ball around well, but once again the wall of Kyle Clegg, Laurence Gard and Will Brown limited the chances they had. At the other end chances were difficult to come by. On the bench, finger nails were down to the cuticles; one goal is never enough. Ryan Hall broke down the right, put a fine ball into the corridor or uncertainty (England cricketers take note!) and at the back post unmarked and with an open net in front Hamzah passed the ball into the net to make it 2-0. Come on ref blow the whistle (owtte) were the only thoughts on our minds and thankfully he did. Hulme make the semi-finals, but to play who? MGS or Shrewsbury?

Scorers:  Ryan Hall    Hamzah Aslam

Man of the Match: Ryan Hall

Manager’s Comment: Congratulations to the team for reaching the semi-finals, the boys knew what they had to do today and delivered the result, credit to the defensive unit for a second clean sheet in a row and to the whole squad for an unbeaten group phase.