Report

A warm sunny morning on Yateley Green for the SPL Senior Cup encounter saw Guildford Gladiators run out 4-1 winners.  However this scoreline was rather harsh as Beaulieu more than matched their Premier League opponents for the 1st half before succumbing to some excellent set piece headed goals scored from corners. 

With William injured, Beaulieu lined up with Maisy in goal, Tom and Ben at the back, Charlie sitting just in front of the defence, Ed and Zach in midfield and Caden up front.  Max started on the bench but was in action after 10 minutes giving Zach a well earned rest.  Guildford's 1st goal came on just three minutes from a high bouncing ball that evaded Maisy and was expertly headed in by a Guildford player.  Guildford looked quick and very dangerous in the air but Beaulieu were causing them a lot of problems with their high work rate and passing game, much improved over last week's friendly.  Charlie was battling well and with Tom and Ben solid at the back, the Wasps looked reasonably secure from open play although Guidlford looked very dangerous from corners as Beaulieu failed to pick up players (more work on the training field needed here!).   However, with Edward and Zach/Max in midfield and caden up front, the Wasps were able to cause Guildford problems and were unlucky not to equalise a few times. However the equaliser did come and it was great bit of improvisation from caden who flicked on a pass over the Keeper's head on 19 minutes.

Beaulieu started the 2nd half brightly nearly scoring directly from the kick off but Guildford dfended the resulting corner well and within minutes had regained the lead. Several Beaulieu players were looking a bit tired now (more fitness work needed too boys) and within a minute of taking the lead, Guildford had scored a second - from another corner, this time a short one which was taken quickly and Beaulieu were slow to react and gave the attacker oodles of time to pick out a player at the far post who (also unmarked) calmly headed past Maisy.  So two goals conceded in two minutes had knocked the stuffing out of us.  However Caden and Edward in particular were still showing lots of energy going forward and when we won a free kick on the edge of the box, Edward's direct shot was just too high to trouble the keeper.  There was still time for Guildford to score a fourth which was also  a header from a corner (can you sense a pattern here?)

So well done to Guildford who proved just too good for us in the end.  However, we gave a very good account of ourselves (especially in the first half) and we learnt a lot (mainly that we need to defend better from corners and work on our fitness!).  All the players did very well but awards went to Edward (who had a very solid game and worked his socks off throughout) and to Tom who along with  Ben was excellent at the back.  A week off next week and fingers crossed that we can get Will back in time for the league encounters in mid to late March!