Cheltenham League

Minor Charity Cup 1st Round

Saturday 7th September 2019

Kick Off 12.00 Actual 12.04

Cheltenham United 0 F.C. Lakeside Reserves 2, attendance 7

33’ 0-1

36’ 0-2

@ All Saints’ Academy, 3G Pitch

Blaisdon Way

Cheltenham

GL51 0WH

No Admission or Programme.

I am not a big fan of doing 3G cages at the best of times, especially on a Saturday, preferring to do them for friendlies, rather than ‘waste’ time doing them for competitive games when there are plenty of much better options to chose from. However, with this kicking off at noon, it meant at least I could double it up, rather than make a special journey, and even better, it was only twenty minutes drive from here to one of my favoured choice of games this afternoon, so it fitted the bill perfectly.

Although there is no barrier inside the cage, the distance from the touch line to the fence is quite wide, so no problem standing inside to watch, especially with a crowd as small as today’s.

These two teams are in Division 3, which is not the greatest standard of football, but there was plenty of effort, and loads of chances, more down to poor defending than good attacking play. It was certainly a lot lower standard than the Division 2 match I saw in this league on Thursday night.

Cheltenham dominated the early stages, but conceded two goals in quick succession just after the half hour mark, to trail 0-2 at halftime. Lakeside had the better of the game in the second half, but it might have been a different story if Cheltenham hadn’t put a penalty kick wide of the target just after the hour mark, before hitting the crossbar and post with two other good efforts late on.