Kent two good for CCCU in Men’s Football 3s

Kent FC 3s romped home to a resounding 2-0 victory in this year’s Varsity game as they dominated and brought home the victory with two well-taken second-half goals.

Christ Church came out of the traps the faster in the first five minutes and put Kent under a reasonable amount of pressure in the early stages. Yet, they failed to create any clear-cut chances and showed a lack of a cutting edge that would trouble UKC in this game.

From this point on it was largely one-way traffic, with the exception of a few Christ Church counters that came to very little and the Kent keeper only really had a few speculative efforts to deal with. In the first-half, Kent went close on a number of occasions, with midfielder, Lewis Meech, and left-winger, Matt Howles, proving to be a real thorn in the side of the Christ Church back line. For concrete chances, they were kept to being more half-chances than guilt edge ones in the first period. Captain, Antony McCarthy, was slipped in down the right after 11 minutes and fired into the side netting and both Howles and Connor Phillips narrowly missed the target from the edge of the box.

Kent went into half-time slightly frustrated to not be ahead and were keen to rectify that in the second period. They soon had the ball in the back of the net as Daniom got in behind and finished from a clipped ball over the top, but he had strayed offside and it was ruled out.

Five minutes later they had their goal for real. A Christ Church corner was cleared and Meech and Howles had good inter-play down the left side, before Meech had his flashed shot across the goal turned wide. However, from the resulting corner Christ Church failed to properly clear the ball and as it ricocheted back off the bar into the path of Connor Phillips and he turned beyond the goalkeeper. Kent had a deserved lead just after the hour mark.

Christ Church then attempted to apply pressure to get back into the game and Andi Nel headed into the side netting from a corner soon after the goal. Regardless, Kent still looked the most likely to score next. Meech dragged his shot wide after dancing inside from a throw-in and the CCCU keeper stayed strong to save a shot from point blank rage after he had made the mistake of picking up a back pass and gave away an indirect free-kick 8-yards from goal.

But this was just delaying the inevitable and with 15 minutes to go one became two. A goalmouth scramble ended up in the ball falling to Joe Johnson around the penalty spot. He swiftly smashed it into the roof of the net to seal the victory.

Chances were at a premium after the second goal as Kent cruised towards adding another Varsity point on to Team Kent’s tally and Christ Church struggled to break down a resilient Kent defence. Before long, raucous celebrations ensued after the referee’s whistle as Kent’s victory was assured.