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City pass first test

- 15/08/2009

If Canterbury's opening Kent County League Premier Division game at
Lewisham Borough is a taste of things to come, then City supporters are
in for an entertaining season.

With several players, including
strikers Royston Gough and Dave Read, unavailable for selection,
manager Dave Fairclough sprung something of a surprise by pairing the
returning Lee Austin with Wayne Fittall to spearhead a 4-4-2
formation.

Throughout the 90 minutes City were always a potent force
going forward and probably deserved to have scored more than the four
goals that gave them the three points. Whilst at times the defence
looked a little fragile, in fairness Lewisham created very few chances
to test debutant City keeper Rob Lindley.

The home team started well with their pace and movement creating
problems for the City defence forcing a number of free kicks but never
actually testing Lindley. Slowly City managed to get a foothold in the
game and on 12 minutes created the first real opening when Fittall
latched onto a kamikaze cross-field ball, cut in from the left and
curled a cross that just eluded the diving Austin.

With City now
starting to move the ball around well themselves, it came as something
of a surprise when on 16 minutes they fell a goal behind. City’s
players were busy appealing for a foul on Scott Lawford, allowing Karim
Yahia space to advance and strike on goal. The unfortunate Lindley was
unable to hold the effort and Ali Mohammed reacted quickest to poke
home.


That lead should have only lasted five minutes when Austin’s through ball
found Lawford inside the Lewisham box. Lawford was upended by Jarrel Gray's
mistimed lunge. Unfortunately for City, Fittall's placed penalty found
the inside of the post but not the back of the net as it rebounded to
safety.

City continued to press, with Lawford particularly influential. On 27 minutes Lewisham managed to scramble Lawford’s free-kick to
safety before, two minutes later, he provided Fittall with the defence
splitting pass to equalise, rounding the keeper and rolling the ball
home.

There's a saying in football that a team is never more vulnerable than
when they have just scored and City illustrated this perfectly. Having
been on level terms for just two minutes, the City defence failed to
clear properly and the ball was lifted over the top. Lindley came out
to punch clear but the ball fell to Marcus Black who lobbed the
stranded keeper.

Still it was City who seemed the more likely to score and they got
their second equaliser after 43 minutes following a corner. Ben Smith
knocked the ball into the near post where skipper Luke Lockhart laid
the ball back to Austin on the edge of the penalty area. His first
time strike appeared to take two deflections off defenders before Ian
Hossick stabbed home from six yards. There was still time for Austin to
find the side netting before the referee brought a breathless first 45
minutes to a conclusion.

City were almost caught cold immediately from the restart but Hossick
was able to block and snuff out any threat. The visitors took the lead
after 48 minutes with a sublime finish from Fittall. A Lewisham
clearance rebounded off one of their own defenders to Austin who again
found his strike partner with a perfectly weighted through ball.

Fittall totally bamboozled the home keeper, encouraging him to go to
ground by just body movement alone and not actually touching the ball.
This left him the easiest of tasks to take the ball around the prone
keeper and slide it into an empty net.

Fittall almost returned the favour to Austin but Danny Doyle just got
enough of a challenge in to deny City a fourth.

Lewisham substitute
David B