Match Report: 1st Team 4-2 Midland (Sat 17th Oct)
Forest United won 4-3 against Midland at home on Saturday.
After last Saturday's defeat against East London Elite a positive response was sought in the home match with Midland.
The opening forty five minutes saw some good spells of football played by both teams. Neither team seemed totally relaxed & comfortable with the ball for any long period of time & that might be partly down to the fact that both teams were eager for the three points from the match. Chances were created by both sides & Aiden Thomas almost put the home team in front after a mistake from the Midland defence allowed Thomas to intercept the ball & while his first shot was saved & the ball kindly came back to him, his second shot narrowly went wide of the post. Thomas later made up for this after he score the opening some minutes later. Midland tried to clear the ball from their area & the ball was picked up by Thomas, whose shot on the turn beat the Midland keeper at his near post & went into the bottom corner of the goal. A little while later a second goal from the believed missing, presumed signed for another club, Michael Southee, gave Forest a 2-0 lead. Set clear by a ball over the top, Southee's surging run between the two Midland central defenders, before stepping inside & evading their challenges, neatly side footing the ball into the roof of the net was a welcome sight. Midland managed to score a goal just before half-time & the score was 2-1 to Forest at the break.
The second half was carried on from the first half. Both teams played some good football with Forest proving dangerous on the counter attack & Midland using their forward line to hold up the ball & bring their midfield into play. Both teams created chances & both teams committed errors, forced & unforced. Forest extended their lead to 3-1 after Southee broke clear of the Midland defence down the right & than played the ball across to the box to Thomas on the left who wasted no time striking the ball into the bottom corner of the goal. Midland struck back after one of their forwards (Their best player!!!) turned & let fly with a low drive from 20 yards out from goal. Chris Mitchell in the Forest goal saw the ball late, through a crowd of bodies & while he managed to get a hand to it, was unable to prevent the ball spinning away & over the goal line. Midland also had a strong appeal for a goal turned down after a lob from one of their players, that beat Mitchell, was cleared off the goal line by Bradley Hodges. Forest than scored their fourth, with Southee receiving the ball from a clearance, after some good defending from a Midland corner kick & despite the appeals of the away team, after being played onside, beating the Midland defence to score his second of the match. Tension at the end of the match as Midland were awarded possibly the softer penalty ever, after one of their players managed to convince the referee that falling over one of his own players in the Forest goal area was worthly of a penalty & than blaming John Cable, playing at right back. Yet despite converting the penalty to bring the score to 4-3, Forest held on for the final few minutes to secure their first league win of the season.
So while it was not pretty & certainly not up to the standards expected of the team, by the players themselves, Forest United ground out an important first win in the league. However a greater improvement will be sought from all areas if Forest United are to continue to grind out further results this season.