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Despite failing to score against Uli Town, Tom Sandman and Jānis Graubiņš are forming a strong partnership up front.
“We might be out of the Cup, but we put up a decent show”. said Joe afterwards. “Let’s not forget this is a young side and we had four teenagers in the starting lineup; the combined age of the front two was only thirty-seven after all”.
Brook Street were 2-0 down after half an hour but it wasn’t until five minutes from time when the visitors made the game safe.
“We closed them down better after the break but were still making chances ourselves which was really encouraging”, the coach added. “Ok, we didn’t finish any of them off, but that will come. Tom [Sandman] and Jānis [Graubiņš] are forming a really good partnership and from it the goals will come”.
“You can see the younger players improving with every game”, he added.
“Sure they’ll have off days but you’ve got to expect that form them from time to time. Overall though progress is definitely being made there and with the rest of the squad too”.
“That for me is more important that playing in cups you have absolutely no chance of winning or where you have an increased risk of players picking up injuries or cards that could impact on the side later in the season”.
“It also means I will not be playing 4-4-2 for the friendlies”, he laughed.
Charlie Benham celebrates his extra-time goal which sends Brook Street into the Third Round.
Joe Anderson’s side had twice been behind and survived the visitors hitting the post in the eighty-ninth minute before equalising in stoppage time to take the game into the extra half-hour.
With nineteen minutes of extra-time played and Brook Street’s youngsters wilting badly, Charlie Benham stepped up to score what proved to be the winning goal with no shortage of showboating thrown in for good measure.
That didn’t go down well with the away bench, but the home side certainly weren’t going to be bothered with that as they shut up shop and rode out the last eleven minutes.
Joe Anderson admitted afterwards that he had taken a risk putting that side and formation out, but even so the result had left him somewhat bemused.
“We knew playing 4-4-2 was not our best formation and having Ryan [Caldor] and Tom [Sandman] on for the entire game was asking a lot of them, especially when it went to extra-time, but I asked them both at full-time if they were ok to do the additional half hour and they were more than up for it”.
“They had good lads round them to keep them going and it all worked out well. They’ll feel it tomorrow, but they have gained invaluable experience”.
Asked about Charlie Benham’s rabona finish he replied, “If he had screwed it up I would have throttled him. Fortunately for us both it went in. He’s been told however to keep it simple in future”.
“We scored terrific goals today; Callum Ironmonger’s was a brilliant play and Alex Marker put a vicious curl on that ball to score the equaliser late on. I must admit I thought he’d put it well wide but it kept on bending. It was unstoppable”.
“We also avoided any injuries or cards and Gillis Jacob came through unscathed, so all in all it was a pretty good day at the office”.
Brook Street will now face a tougher challenge in the shape of Division III side Uli Town in the next round.
This is Brook Street 