Biggleswade Town 2 Bishop s Stortford Community FC Blues 3 The Blues deservedly won their first league game of the season with an excellent performance against Biggleswade. Biggleswade could have levelled with a last minute penalty but it was spurned an

Biggleswade Town 2 Bishop's Stortford Community FC Blues 3

The Blues deservedly won their first league game of the season with an excellent performance against Biggleswade.

Biggleswade could have levelled with a last minute penalty but it was spurned and Stortford were good value for their win.

Against a physically strong team like Biggleswade, the Blues needed to fight for every ball and make a quick start. Fortunately, everyone seemed to be on their game straightaway and Blues took the lead through Jordan Sanderson after a good through pass from Harry Synowski after 15 minutes or so.

This seemed to give the team confidence and shortly after they went two goals up when Matt Wheeler scored with a screamer from the edge of the area that smacked the bar and went in. A fantastic goal on his competitive debut for the team.

A slight mistake in midfield let Biggleswade back in, and a really good passing move ripped the Blues apart to make the score 2-1 at half time.

In the second half Blues really started to put some good passing moves together, with Mark Redcliffe and Connor Gypps particularly prominent in most of their best moves.

It was no real surprise when Jordan Sanderson raced on to an excellent through ball and buried the chance to put Stortford 3-1 up. At this point the team started to play some brilliant football, including some really good set piece free-kicks and corners delivered by Thursday's super-subs Harry Synowski and Billy Cox.

During this period it could have been 5-1 or 6-1 ahead, but they almost came to regret their misses.

Biggleswade pulled it back to 3-2 with a well worked goal from the left and then were awarded a penalty in the last minute of the game.

Tommy "Grobbelaar" Baiss stood tall and made a comfortable save from the penalty and ensured that the Blues ran out fully deserved winners.

Fairlands Youth U-14 0 BSCFC Blues 1

On a very hot Sunday lunchtime the Blues successfully overcame a strong and determined Fairlands side to run out deserved 1-0 winners.

Missing Jordan Powles and Sam Gale, the squad were stretched to the limit by a Fairlands team eager to make home advantage count.

However, Blues are nothing if not resilient, and are extremely difficult to break down due to their hard work and organisation when defending.

Although clearly the better side, Blues struggled to take advantage of several clear chances, and Billy Cox and Tommy Baiss were called upon to repel the Fairlands attackers on several occasions.

Most of Blues moves in the first half were coming from the left, the impressive Matt Wheeler and the darting runs of Greg Harrison helping to create several chances.

After a close fought first 25 minutes it was Blues who took the lead with a well worked move down the left, which saw the ball transfer from Matt Wheeler to Jordan Sanderson and then on to Greg Harrison, who calmly slotted into an open net.

There then followed several half chances to Blues, all of which we failed to convert.

Half time came with the Blues on top and leading 1-0 after surviving a few scares where Fairlands had tried to exploit the somewhat square Stortford defence by playing balls over the top.

At half time we reorganised our defence so that Albie McCabe and Ben Gannon played as a unit, one dropping off when the other went forward to meet the ball.

This snuffed out most of the Fairlands attacking threats, and Billy Cox and Scott Almond covered excellently at full back on the rare occasions Ben or Albie were unable to clear.

Clarry Williams and Harry Synowski in midfield worked really hard to win the ball and Connor Gypps managed to find space on the right, delivering one excellent cross which Greg was unfortunate not to convert.

Because of the way we played so deep, Mark Redcliffe, Jordan Sanderson and Greg Harrison were forced to scrap for possession, partly because by playing deep there is too much of a gap between attack and midfield.

This is something we need to work on, and one way of helping to solve this is to hold on to possession when we win the ball. We were sometimes guilty of giving the ball away far too easily after battling really hard to win it in the first place.

When we play against some of the stronger teams we will need to keep possession and pass the ball more effectively. Whilst we defend excellently we need to start keeping hold of the ball for longer and to put away the chances we do create.

However, after our re-jig at half time, Fairlands created only one chance in the second half, and Blues can be really pleased with the effort, determination and teamwork we showed to beat a tough opponent.

BSCFC Blues 6 Pin Green Juniors 1

Blues produced a brilliant performance to dispose of Pin Green.

The game was less than one minute old when our tall rangy striker Jordan Sanderson lashed the ball into the net from fully 35 yards to put us one goal to the good.

The game then settled down into an intricate exchange of flowing moves, until after 15 minutes goalkeeper Tommy Baiss flew through the air to palm away a goalbound strike from the opposing forwards.

Within minutes Jordan Sanderson had sliced through the centre like a knife through butter to double our lead. But this was not enough for our boys. We wanted more. The crowd wanted more. And we got more.

Even the referee was inspired to create a goal for us, his somewhat inappropriate intervention shortly leading to the ball falling to the gazelle like creature that is Mark Redcliffe. Valiantly the Pin Green players fought to thwart him, the goalkeeper even briefly defying our fantastic fleet-footed forward, but the rampant Redcliffe merely took aim patiently and stroked the rebound into an empty net.

Blues continued in the same vein in the second half as Redcliffe struck another. Sanderson brought the game alive to make it five and Harrison hit it between the sticks to make it six. The sole riposte from Pin Green was a mere blot of ink on the canvas that had been created by our boys.

BSCFC Blues 3 Fairlands 2 (RYFL League Cup Round 1)

For the first 15 minutes the Blues continued where they left off against Pin Green. Some of the passing and movement of the boys going forward was straight off the training ground and we really deserved to be one or two goals up on the strength of our play.

However, our shooting radar was slightly off target and this combined with some fantastic saves from the Fairlands number one meant that we went unrewarded for our fine approach play.

And as so often happens when a team fails to capitalise on its superiority we soon found ourselves a goal behind. We allowed ourselves to be caught out by failing to get back quickly enough when our own corner led to a quick passing move by Fairlands that ended with an excellent lofted shot from their inside forward. Tommy Baiss had been a virtual spectator but could do nothing about a finely placed shot that crept in under the bar. 1-0 to Fairlands and game on.

At this stage Blues really started to take the game to Fairlands and Greg Harrison was particularly unlucky when his snapshot from the edge of the area was miraculously turned away for a corner by their keeper. It seemed that the 'keeper was equal to everything that we threw at him and he also showed his positional strength by blocking Jordan Sanderson when he was straight through.

And as so often happens we were caught out by a second sucker punch, and a long diagonal ball over the top led to a chance which they converted to go 2-0 up just before half time.

So half time came with the Blues having played some of their best football of the season and yet still we trailed by two goals. Fairlands had two chances, two shots and two goals.

At half time the team all put their opinions across but the only change we made was to decide to be a little less square at the back in the middle.

Other than that we continued to play superb passing football. Surely we would soon get the goal our play richly deserved? And yet for a further 20 minutes their goal led a charmed life.

With only 15 minutes remaining it seemed as though we were on our way out, and then suddenly a magnificent cross from Billy Cox found its way across to Jordan Powles, who was becoming steadily more influential on the wide left.

There was some debate as to who got the final touch but in my mind Jordan made the telling intervention to steer the ball in off the right hand post.

Less than 15 minutes to go but the goal from Jordan seemed to spark new life into the boys. Wave after wave of surging attacks rained on the Fairlands goal, and one save from their 'keeper from a Jordan Powles curler was truly amazing.

But surely when they were playing this well the Blues could not be denied? Even the blistering pace of Ben Gannon in a surging run from the back was thwarted by an unseen shirt tug, so maybe this was the week we got our comeuppance?

But then with less than five minutes to go a sparkling passing move down the right wing involving Matt Wheeler, Jordan Sanderson, Mark Redcliffe and finally a square lay off from Harry Synowksi was gloriously finished with a piledriver from Connor Gypps.

There seemed only one team wanting to win the game now and it wasn't Fairlands.

With two minutes left on the clock the ball broke to Harry Synowski. There was nothing on and he was a good 35 yards from goal. But Harry weaved, waltzed, dribbled and swerved his way past four defenders and then smacked the winner in under the goalie to make it 3-2 and complete a magnificent fightback.