The latest news from the Posh Futsal team, thanks to reporter Thomas Gillespie.
The Posh futsal A and B teams left the Barking Sporthouse, London, with comfortable 4-1 and 11-1 wins on Wednesday (13th May).
The ‘A’ sides 4-1 win against Crawley meant they finished the league in 5th place, just two points behind Brentford who occupy the final national’s place, while the ‘B’ teams 11-1 win against Southend was their biggest of the season.
The ‘A’ team’s game against Crawley was the last of their league campaign, and they started in lacklustre fashion as they found themselves 1-0 down in the opening minutes. A long ball forward caught their defence out, before being chested down and knocked across goal to be fired in to an empty net.
The early goal meant a time-out from Posh coach Michael Johnson. Johnson took this opportunity to kick his players in to shape and change his tactics from a 1-2-1 diamond to a man-for-man formation.
Johnson’s change of tactics soon paid off when his ‘A’ side maintained longer spells of possession before top scorer Oliver Brant pulled his side back on level terms. Brant’s low right-footed strike found the bottom corner and took his goal tally to 27 for the season.
The Posh then went on to dominate the game and after a series of corners they took the lead shortly before half-time. Callum Avent laid a short corner off and Kieran Luxford fired it first time across goal and in to the far corner – a well-rehearsed training move.
After a slow start to the second half the Posh upped their tempo of play and were unlucky not to extend their lead. Josh Backhouse hit the woodwork twice, first the bar and then the post, before being brandished a yellow card for a late tackle.
The Crawley ‘keeper was in fine form when called in to action by Avent and Brant, but failed to keep out Daniel Firth’s strikes when the Posh defender popped up to extend their lead with two late goals.
Firth carried the ball out from defence and toe-poked a long-range effort in to the bottom corner for Posh’s third, before watching his curling effort nestle in the back of the net to round off the scoring and seal a 4-1 win for the Posh ‘A’ team.
The Posh ‘B’ team began their match emphatically and were 2-0 up very early on when Connor Mitchell and Josh Pearce saw their close-range efforts hit the back of the net.
Pearce almost went on to make it 3-0 immediately after when he shot just wide following a quick turn of pace and some brilliant skill.
It took until just before half-time for the Posh ‘B’ side to make it 3-0 when Pearce grabbed his second goal of the game and Chris Wyhatt made it 4-0 right on the whistle when his fierce right-footed strike crept in at the near-post.
There were no signs of the Posh taking their foot off the gas when Ben Doyle made it 5-0 shortly after the restart. Another rehearsed corner routine paid off when Doyle’s first time strike found the back of the net, but only thanks to a howler from the Southend ‘keeper.
Pearce rattled the crossbar from long-range before Southend broke down the other end to score what would turn out to be a mere consolation.
The Posh never looked back after conceding and went on to make it 6 and 7-1 soon after. Doyle found the net again following a lay-off from a corner and Pearce went on to bag his hat-trick when making it 7-1.
In the closing few minute’s Mitchell and Doyle went on a goal scoring spree of their own. A one-two ended with Mitchell tapping in to make it 8-1 before repaying the favour for Doyle to tap in twice to make 9-1, and 10-1.
In the dying moments Doyle intercepted play on the edge of his own box, and with the Southend ‘keeper by the half-way line, he set his sights on goal. His long range effort flew over the ‘keepers head and in to round off the scoring and make it 11-1 – a truly emphatic win and their largest this season.
A team squad: A. Moore (GK), C. Avent ©, O. Brant, K. Luxford, J. Backhouse, D. Firth.
B team squad: L. Bland (GK & c), L. Soames, J. Pearce, B. Doyle, C. Whyatt, C. Mitchell.