After a shakey start to East London Knights pre season campaign, they were entertained by a division 3 outfit in Faithfold C. Although playing some good football in recent weeks they have lacked a cutting edge.
Whatever they were missing or searching for wasn't far away, a stunning display quite simply blew faithfold away. The knights wasted no time whatsoever in taking the game to the home side, great midfield work from matt west set Michael Marks down the left wing and a perfectly weighted cross fell into the path of the on rushing James Ryan who controlled well and slotted the ball home within 5 minutes of the kick off.
As they say you are at your most vulnerable after taking the lead, and the knights were no different almost immediately after taking the lead they were pegged back after some naive defending letting the opposition have a free shot at goal and finished exquisitely in the corner.
Suffering this minor set back it wasn't long before the away side regained control of the game, a long ball played through to James Ryan who quite brilliantly lobbed the goalkeeper from a tight angle. East London Knights went in at half time full of confidence and biting at the bit to get back out there and finish off the job in hand. This is exactly what happened 10 mins into the 2nd half James was played in one on one and you could bet your house on it that James would bag his hat-trick, letting no one down he finished with aplong.
Faithfold gave the knights a bit of a scare after being awarded a very harsh penalty with the referee seeing an infringement in the area claiming he saw a handball. Quite unfortunately Paul Sanders was unlucky not to stop the spot kick as the pen just slipped through his fingers.
The away side hoped that the home side wouldn't take any hope from this, as faithfold grew in confidence but after 75 mins the game was put to bed after James beating 2 players on the right hand side then cutting back in to complete the rout and grab his fourth of the game.
Assistant manager Michael Marks said: - This was the performance we were looking for. We have been improving each week and today we clicked, it was fantastic to be involved in such a great game of football. James was lethal today, when he is hungry and feeding off good deliveries it’s hard to stop him.
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