Littlemore lose at Crowmarsh, but, starting with 10 men, still put up a very strong team performance.

Crowmarsh started confidently and in the opening minute Dylan Harrison saw his shot stopped by a great save from the keeper. Almost immediately after that great work by Kai Thomas saw him win the ball before laying it through to Sam Beaumont who slid it past the keeper into the far post to make it 1-0 after just 2 minutes. Sam went tantalisingly close 3 more times before Ed Seares intercepted a kick from the Littlemore keeper, took one touch to control the ball, and then hit a beautiful right-foot shot from 18 yards straight back into the top of the goal, 2-0 to Crowmarsh and only 9 minutes gone.

Unfortunately, for both Ed and Crowmarsh, he injured himself scoring this goal and had to be substituted and would play no further part in the game.

Despite being 2 down inside 10 minutes Littlemore didn’t let their heads drop and could have scored a couple themselves before, in the 20th minute, a flowing Crowmarsh attack ended with Will Hayes playing the ball through to Sam Beaumont who slammed in his second goal to make it 3-0.

Again, Littlemore attacked and a great move saw Daryl Samworth’s shot go just wide before Crowmarsh attacked again, this time it was Sam who played provider, running at the Littlemore defence before crossing the ball to Dylan Harrison who slotted home to make it 4-0.

Crowmarsh’s next attack began when Will Baker, who didn’t seem to stop running for the whole game, slipped the ball through to Sam Beaumont but unfortunately his shot come back off the bar. This was the last action of the first half and Crowmarsh seemed comfortable at 4-0.

The second half saw a resurgent Littlemore scoring within the first 3 minutes, only to see the goal ruled out for offside. Within a minute it was Crowmarsh’s turn to score and have it disallowed for the same reason.

Littlemore continued to attack and in the 36th minute they broke through the Crowmarsh defence and saw Nishrun Parameswaran slide the ball past the advancing keeper to reduce the deficit to 4-1.

Within a minute Littlemore were attacking Crowmarsh again and desperate defending led to a penalty. Up stepped the player that had been brought down for the penalty, Saul St. Clair, who struck it well to give the keeper no chance, 4-2. A rejuvenated Littlemore spent the next few minutes camped in the Crowmarsh half and only a last ditch clearance from Matthew Stirling prevented them from making it 4-3.

Crowmarsh spent most of the first 15 minutes of the 2nd half keeping Littlemore at bay and they desperately needed another goal to help settle their jangling nerves. This came in the 45th minute when Sam Beaumont ran at the Littlemore defence before putting the ball in the net to make it 5-2 and you could almost hear the sighs of relief from both the players and the supporters.

To their credit Littlemore continued to pressurise the Crowmarsh defence and it took a great clearance from Kai Thomas to prevent them from closing the gap once more, but any hopes of a Littlemore comeback were finally snuffed out when Crowmarsh won a free kick just outside the Littlemore penalty area. Sam Beaumont stepped up and looped a lovely shot into the top corner to make it 6-2 with just 4 minutes left.

Crowmarsh had one last attack before the final whistle and James Eatwell was very unlucky not to reach a shot parried out by the Littlemore keeper.

At the final whistle Crowmarsh knew they had been in a tough game and although the 6-2 scoreline gives the impression that it was a comfortable win it really was anything but, with several people commenting that if Littlemore had fielded 11 players it could well have been a different story.

Well done to both sets of players for a thoroughly exciting, and at times very tense, game.