For the second year in a row, we faced Chichester in a pre-season friendly, with this game in memory of Graeme Gee. Graeme was a loyal member of the local football community and Graeme’s family were in attendance for the game and to present the trophy at full time.
Understandably the game took a fair while to get going, as both sets of players found their feet following the summer break. Chichester started with more possession and passed the ball around from their back line well, and this was a trend which continued for much of the game.
Lawrence Cooper had what was probably Money’s best individual effort of the first 45. He collected the ball centrally inside the Chichester defensive half, then whilst moving forward he attempted a placed curling shot but it just went wide of the target.
After 22 minutes Chichester drove down the right wing and crossed the ball into the box. The ball made its way to Emmett Dunn who gave them the lead, as their number 8.
Our best play in the first half was a triangle of passes down the right channel between Jordan Pile, new signing Louis Gates and one of the trialists. It resulted in the Trialist breaking into the box, right to goal line and drilling a ball towards the edge of the 6 yard line. Sadly it had to much speed on it, so no one in yellow could capitalise.
When it was looking fairly even for a 10 minute period, Chichester won a corner and managed to get the ball into the net after a bit of a scramble. 15 year old goalkeeper Ethan Bell, who had a fantastic game in general, was caught by a sudden gust as it looked to push the corner straight over him into his net. He managed to get a hand to it as he came off his feet, but sadly it landed on the head of Chichester player, Ollie Munt, who nodded home.
Half-Time: Moneyfields 0-2 Chichester City
There was two half time subs as new signing Kaleem Haitham replaced a trialist, and another trialist was replaced Ethan Gee.
The second half was a much tighter affair as both teams were intent on practicing passing patterns, getting fitness up and generally taking a steady opening to preseason.
Lawrence Cooper put a real shift in, putting in many an attempt at getting Moneys up the pitch. One surge an hour in, had him barging his way past 4 players before eventually earning a free kick. Hopefully a sign of the continued dogged effort we saw last time from Loz in many games.
On 68 minutes, a quad of subs in the form of Josh O’Reilly, Dexter West, Connor Zotch and Ollie Nash replaced Jeffes, Cooper, Blankson and a trialist.
The youngsters who came on gave a very solid showing of their future potential. There was some really solid defending and sticking to the shape asked by new Manager Callum Glen and his coaching staff.
Full-Time: Moneyfields 0-2 Chichester City
Moneys XI: Bell, Gates, Gee, Pile, Jeffes, Wan, Trialist A, Cooper, Trialist B, Trialist C, Blankson
Subs (all used): O’Reilly, Haitham, Trialist D, West, Zotsch, Nash
