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Mon 26 Nov 2018
Bedford Town Vets 
Icarus Masters/Vets Squad
4
2
J Hetherington (0'), G Evans (0')
Icarus Vets Squad v Bedford Town Vets
Icarus FC30 Jan 2019 - 16:49
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Match report
On 26th November 2018 Icarus FC took on Bedford Town Vets in the Bedfordshire Veterans Cup at Wooton Blue Cross Football Club. The team consisted of: Vinny Jackson, Eddie Roughsedge, Teo Bradley; Rob Swinney, Rod Babington, John Hetherington, Gareth Evans, Rich Lowe, Scott Hyndman, Kev Capelin-Jones, Chris Ritchie, Kev Knott, Mark Gilligan and Lee Wood.
The weather was cold and foggy and the pitch was claggy, wet and muddy. So perfect conditions for a Vets football match! Before the game the hope was for an Icarus win to allow Icarus to finish 2nd or 3rd in the group and consequently go through to the knock out stages of the competition.
In the first half Icarus were organised as a 4-2-3-1. The first half began as a close contest. Bedford piled on the pressure and continued to press and after some solid defending from Woody and Lowe and a couple of saves from Vinny it remained nil, nil. Bedford won a few corners in a 10-minute passage of play but Icarus, with the grit between their teeth, continued to move the ball about well and started applying pressure of their own. Lowe delivered a few quality corners and Icarus created three decent chances. Some solid play down the left resulted in Babington finding Hetherington with space in the box and he smashed it just over the bar. Hetherington then found Babington in the 6-yard box but he just couldn’t connect cleanly whilst under pressure from the Bedford centre half. Playing more direct, Bradley found Hetherington with a long ball which he flicked around the corner with Babington drawing a foul from the Bedford right-back 25 yards out. A determined Hetherington went close with the resulting free-kick. However, Bedford fielded a strong front two: they had speed, cunning and were able to outpace the Icarus back four. Taking advantage of this, they employed the long ball tactic to great effect and the ball over the top as their go to weapon throughout.
The Icarus defence kept dropping off to counter the speed of the Bedford attack but consequently large gaps started to appear in the middle of the park that Bedford went on to exploit. Icarus started to take advantage of the Bedford defence as Babington battled hard to support the tireless running of Hetherington, but as Bedford were constantly on the attack, Icarus found it difficult to exploit any opportunities in their defensive third.
Bedford’s first goal came from a scramble in midfield, the ball broke to their left midfield who put a cutting ball through the Icarus back-line, the Bedford centre forward quickly reacted and with a one on one with the Icarus keeper, and slotted it home. This goal came at the end of some significant pressure and was not their first attack by any means but some solid goalkeeping from Vinny kept Icarus in the game.
The second half saw Icarus set up in a 4-3-3 formation. Bedford began as they ended the first half on the front foot and kept the Icarus defence pinned back and busy. Relatively quickly into the second half Icarus found themselves 2-0 down from a corner which ended with a bullet header from one of Bedford’s defenders. Icarus dug deep and demonstrated more fight in the second half with Kev and Scotty battling hard in the centre of midfield, but the Bedford attack continued to keep Icarus in their own half. Bedford’s third goal came out of nothing; again, the pace of the Bedford front line beating the Icarus defence, with Vinny running out to close the striker down the ball was lobbed into the top corner.
Icarus then made a number of changes and at 3-0 needed to dig deep to get back into the game. Some excellent work through the centre of midfield placed Evo in a position to be able to let rip from 30 yards out, driving the ball into the top right corner with 10 minutes left to play. Icarus were clawing back into the game. Yet again, Bedford’s speed up front split the Icarus Defence and a crowded penalty area resulted in a Vinny Jackson save falling to a Bedford midfielder to easily slot into the back of the Icarus net, 4-1.
Icarus continued to work hard and with 8 minutes left on the clock, and with nothing to lose, began to press the game. Icarus overloaded the Bedford midfield leaving risk at the back. Johnny H crossed the ball from the left, the ball skidded along the floor and eventually made its way through a myriad of legs and somehow found its way into the bottom left had corner of the Bedford goal, through the Goalie’s legs!
The game ended 4-2 to Bedford Town Vets.
Icarus legend Rich Lowe commented: “Pretty awful tonight, aside from Evo’s 30 yard screamer in top corner”.
The Manager Dave Gault commented, “Disappointing result last night, but the news is not all bad. Our final group game is against Cambridge on 26 Jan 19; if we beat them and Bedford drop points against top of the league Barton, we will qualify for the semi final”.
An honourable mention goes to Rob Swinney for preparing to go in goals and putting in a solid performance in defence and on a positive note, when Icarus moved the ball quickly, they played much better. Evo’s outstanding goal was world class and if Ronaldo had done it, it would have been talked about for years.
This game proved that there are no easy games at Vets level, especially in this particular Cup Competition.
The manager decided that the Man of the Match award is to go to Vinny Jackson (also author of this report….) for his attempts at keeping Icarus in the game:
The weather was cold and foggy and the pitch was claggy, wet and muddy. So perfect conditions for a Vets football match! Before the game the hope was for an Icarus win to allow Icarus to finish 2nd or 3rd in the group and consequently go through to the knock out stages of the competition.
In the first half Icarus were organised as a 4-2-3-1. The first half began as a close contest. Bedford piled on the pressure and continued to press and after some solid defending from Woody and Lowe and a couple of saves from Vinny it remained nil, nil. Bedford won a few corners in a 10-minute passage of play but Icarus, with the grit between their teeth, continued to move the ball about well and started applying pressure of their own. Lowe delivered a few quality corners and Icarus created three decent chances. Some solid play down the left resulted in Babington finding Hetherington with space in the box and he smashed it just over the bar. Hetherington then found Babington in the 6-yard box but he just couldn’t connect cleanly whilst under pressure from the Bedford centre half. Playing more direct, Bradley found Hetherington with a long ball which he flicked around the corner with Babington drawing a foul from the Bedford right-back 25 yards out. A determined Hetherington went close with the resulting free-kick. However, Bedford fielded a strong front two: they had speed, cunning and were able to outpace the Icarus back four. Taking advantage of this, they employed the long ball tactic to great effect and the ball over the top as their go to weapon throughout.
The Icarus defence kept dropping off to counter the speed of the Bedford attack but consequently large gaps started to appear in the middle of the park that Bedford went on to exploit. Icarus started to take advantage of the Bedford defence as Babington battled hard to support the tireless running of Hetherington, but as Bedford were constantly on the attack, Icarus found it difficult to exploit any opportunities in their defensive third.
Bedford’s first goal came from a scramble in midfield, the ball broke to their left midfield who put a cutting ball through the Icarus back-line, the Bedford centre forward quickly reacted and with a one on one with the Icarus keeper, and slotted it home. This goal came at the end of some significant pressure and was not their first attack by any means but some solid goalkeeping from Vinny kept Icarus in the game.
The second half saw Icarus set up in a 4-3-3 formation. Bedford began as they ended the first half on the front foot and kept the Icarus defence pinned back and busy. Relatively quickly into the second half Icarus found themselves 2-0 down from a corner which ended with a bullet header from one of Bedford’s defenders. Icarus dug deep and demonstrated more fight in the second half with Kev and Scotty battling hard in the centre of midfield, but the Bedford attack continued to keep Icarus in their own half. Bedford’s third goal came out of nothing; again, the pace of the Bedford front line beating the Icarus defence, with Vinny running out to close the striker down the ball was lobbed into the top corner.
Icarus then made a number of changes and at 3-0 needed to dig deep to get back into the game. Some excellent work through the centre of midfield placed Evo in a position to be able to let rip from 30 yards out, driving the ball into the top right corner with 10 minutes left to play. Icarus were clawing back into the game. Yet again, Bedford’s speed up front split the Icarus Defence and a crowded penalty area resulted in a Vinny Jackson save falling to a Bedford midfielder to easily slot into the back of the Icarus net, 4-1.
Icarus continued to work hard and with 8 minutes left on the clock, and with nothing to lose, began to press the game. Icarus overloaded the Bedford midfield leaving risk at the back. Johnny H crossed the ball from the left, the ball skidded along the floor and eventually made its way through a myriad of legs and somehow found its way into the bottom left had corner of the Bedford goal, through the Goalie’s legs!
The game ended 4-2 to Bedford Town Vets.
Icarus legend Rich Lowe commented: “Pretty awful tonight, aside from Evo’s 30 yard screamer in top corner”.
The Manager Dave Gault commented, “Disappointing result last night, but the news is not all bad. Our final group game is against Cambridge on 26 Jan 19; if we beat them and Bedford drop points against top of the league Barton, we will qualify for the semi final”.
An honourable mention goes to Rob Swinney for preparing to go in goals and putting in a solid performance in defence and on a positive note, when Icarus moved the ball quickly, they played much better. Evo’s outstanding goal was world class and if Ronaldo had done it, it would have been talked about for years.
This game proved that there are no easy games at Vets level, especially in this particular Cup Competition.
The manager decided that the Man of the Match award is to go to Vinny Jackson (also author of this report….) for his attempts at keeping Icarus in the game:
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