Winning Start Against City

EASTLEIGH v CAMBRIDGE CITY
SATURDAY 11th AUGUST 2007

Blue Square South

If Eastleigh had one wish for the outcome of today's game, it would have been to start the brand new season with three points. And that is exactly what they got as well as a clean sheet as an added bonus!

Having ended the pre-season on a high with victory over Weymouth, the Spitfires faithful had no reason not to expect a similar outcome today against Cambridge City.

Chris Piper, having missed the majority of pre-season and only returning to training just this week, made a return to the side, to replace the injured Andy Harris in an otherwise unchanged starting line up from the eleven that surpassed the Terras.

An extremely, lively start from the Spitfires saw City keeper Shane Herbert troubled within the opening stages.

Working the ball down the right hand side, Ellis Green and Chris Piper played a smart one-two before the right back hooked into the centre. Danny Smith latched on to the pull-back and squeezed a side foot shot past a host of players to test Herbert early on.

Just nineteen minutes in, Eastleigh had found the deserved breakthrough on the back of numerous examples of decent attacking football prior to the goal.

In a side containing five former Fisher Athletic players, two combined perfectly in the form of Chris Piper and ANTHONY RIVIERE to produce what turned out to be the decisive moment in the game.

Piper chested the ball down high up the park before feeding the ball through for Riviere who skipped past his marker gracefully before finishing in style with the outside of his right foot, from the edge of the area. This goal opening up both the player's and the club's account for the new campaign.

Moments later, the lead was very nearly doubled as Andy Forbes fired narrowly over the cross bar from a precise chipped pass from Danny Smith.

Eastleigh continued to dominate right the way through the half, enjoying long periods of possession and in the third quarter of the pitch.

Half an hour had passed when Anthony Riviere was shown a yellow card for his shirt pull on Craig Radcliffe as the goalscorer went in pursuit of stopping the Lilywhites winger.

Taking a knock to the chin from skipper Glen Fuff, Andy Forbes was then forced to leave the field temporarily for minor cuts suffered from the aerial challenge.

As the half came to a close, still it was the hosts who had the upper hand. A delightful throughball from the lively Ellis Green, split the City defence like a knife leaving Damian Scannell in the clear inside the penalty area but the ball got away from Scannell at the last moment, allowing the keeper to gather to safety.

Bringing to an end a solid first forty-five minutes in the heat, in front of a bumper crowd of 807 (interestingly, the highest attendance in the division).

HALF TIME: Eastleigh 1-0 Cambridge City

Pullen and his defence had precious little to do thus far, though the second half proved to be much more of a test as the visitors piled on the pressure in search of an equaliser.

After an edgy few moments for Eastleigh, they were soon back on the front foot with an excellent free flowing passing move. Riviere held the ball up for Piper who took the ball forward with a surging run down the right, swiftly picking up a return pass from Andy Forbes before squaring for Steve Watts.

Letting the ball roll across his body and on to his weaker left foot, Watts failed to do the move justice with an attempt that flew high over the bar.

Neil Midgley had a shot deflected behind on 55 minutes, and from the resulting corner Radcliffe nodded inches wide of the upright.

Next, Eastleigh came within a whisker of stretching the lead to two goals as yet another telling cross from Piper caused all kinds of problems for the City back line as both Forbes and Watts attacked the delivery arriving at the six yard box. Somehow, Herbert managed to keep the ball out from point blank range to concede a corner.

Skipper, Rob Marshall rose high to meet Green's corner with a decent header that flew narrowly over the top.

Neil Midgley, scorer of two goals against the Spitfires when the two clubs met at the City Ground last season, linked up with substitute forward Lee Roache but his weak effort was straight at Pullen and easy for him to get to.

On the hour mark, Eastleigh introduced Darren Wheeler, who took the place of Damian Scannell.

A long ball up the park from Pullen was flicked on by Watts into the path of strike partner Forbes, who steadied himself and found a clear sight at goal but failed to really test the keeper on this occasion.

As time wore on, it was Cambridge dictating the play to a certain extent. Though Eastleigh were under pressure, Rob Marshall the colossus that is, and Karim El-Salahi were solid in defence, not only this, all over the park everyone fulfilled their roles and as such the Spitfires' defensive unit did not look like breaking down.

Pullen, again kept his clean sheet in tact with a fine save low down to deny Gash's powerful strike with twenty minutes remaining.

Player-boss David Hughes returned to action following the nose operation that kept him out of the pre-season friendlies, when he replaced Ellis Green to a huge round of applause.

Time running down now, things were getting a little too tense for comfort for the home fans.

Roache got the better of Pullen, who had come a long way from his goal to try and clear the ball, but the Cambridge sub got his feet in a muddle as the ball rolled thankfully, out for a goal kick.

Nine minutes from time, City substitute Lee Roache produced the very best out of Jamie Pullen when he was played through by Michael Gash.

In the one on one situation and with a chance to rescue a point, Roache was thwarted by the bravery of the Eastleigh stopper and the Spitfires held on, somewhat nervously but with solid defending all the same to take all three points.

A terrific winning start, which now needs to be built on with two tricky, upcoming away visits to Bath City on Tuesday and Braintree Town a week today.

FULL TIME: Eastleigh 1-0 Cambridge City

JAMIE MONTIGUE