Branksome v Christchurch

Match Result: 1 - 7

Goal Scorers: Olly B (3), Oliver D (2), Harry C (2)

Branksome always give us a tough game and had done the double on us last season. This season we are playing them today and then have the reverse fixture in two weeks. To add a bit of spice to the game they had taken a few players from Heathlands in the summer and originally Ollie G and Oliver D had signed for them before changing their minds and transferring to us.

Anyway we started well but always struggled with their pace. We were caught out two or three times by a ball over the top which beat our back four and Dec had to come out for and also their right midfield player was very quick. On about the fourth time he'd come out Dec apparently made contact with Callum and the ref gave a penalty. Lee took it but Dec saved.

Almost immediately we won a free kick and Harry scored straight from it. We were never comfortable though and Branksome seemed more up for it than us. Just before half time a fantastic run to the touch line from Oliver D and ball in led to Olly B scoring our second.

The second half started much the same. Dave flagged offside against two of their strikers and one scored. Eventually the ref saw Dave's flag and so ruled it out. When we started moving the ball better with one-twos or simple passing we looked much better and started taking our chances. The goals kept ticking over up to 4 before they scored from a free kick with about ten minutes left. This could have led to an edgy period but we carried on as we had been playing and added three more goals including Olly Balmer completing his hat trick.