29th December 2007
HT: 0-4
FT: 4-5 L
Cliffe FC sat top of the East Riding County League Division 5 after three straight wins and this week faced Gilberdyke who are the only team to have taken three points from Cliffe this season after winning the reverse fixture in November.
Malcolm Bryce writes…
Cliffe began the game awfully and were one-nil down within the first five minutes and soon found themselves two-nil down and Cliffe didn’t seem to respond at all to conceding and their performance did not improve until they conceded a third and then a lobbed shot meant that Cliffe found themselves 4-nil down after 15 minutes played. The game had kicked off at 1.45 but Cliffe only began the game at 2pm. With the score at 4-nil Gilberdyke then began to feel the Cliffe prowess that has put Cliffe at the division summit and the home side had the better of the rest of the half with Dave Heron hitting the bar, Scott Birch having a free-kick saved and Kev Taylor having a goal-ward bound shot denied by the Gilberdyke ‘keeper. Half time soon came and Gilberdyke remained 4-nil up.
The scoreline was deserving due to the attitude of Cliffe’s play and they needed to assert themselves if they were to get anything out of the game. Cliffe got one back through Andy Kirkham and looked to push on, they got a second through Tom Hogg and third from Scott Birch. The score was 4-3 to Gilberdyke and Cliffe looked most likely to score the next goal. The eighth goal of the game would be the most important of the game and it fell to Gilberdyke, as from a Cliffe corner a following up cross was left lacking and the coupling back-pass to the ‘keeper was intercepted by the forward and put into the net for 5-3 to the visitors. Cliffe continued to push and got a forth from John Rodrigues but, this was not enough and the game finished with Gilberdyke beating Cliffe by the same scoreline and in a similar fashion to the reverse fixture from November.
Cliffe did not show why they are top of the league and this performance was by-far now where near the level they have been exhibiting this season and a justified result was dealt to them. Cliffe however still sit top of their league and manager, Keith Tiplady, was seething after this showing by his team which may have been their worst of the season. Keith Tiplady said “For the first fifteen minutes our goalkeeper didn’t keep goal, our defenders didn’t defend, our midfielders couldn’t pass, tackle or keep the ball and our forwards were observers. The rest of the game was a routine walk in the park but, the damage had already been done.”
Many Thanks goes to Cliffe FC sponsors The Bread Bin and Pure-Silk and The New Inn for their hospitality.
Cliffe Team:
A. Harris, A. Kirkham, D. Evans, K. Simpson (Wood), M. Birch, K. Taylor, J. Rodrigues, S. Birch, D. Heron, T. Hogg, B. Summers (Horner)
Unused Sub; R. Tiplady
Cliffe Scorers:
A. Kirkham, T. Hogg, S. Birch, J. Rodrigues