College Football: Derwent 10-0 Alcuin

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Photos: Nicole Sorlie

Derwent responded strongly to their shock defeat to Goodricke last week with a crushing 10-0 victory against a poor Alcuin side, who were missing a number of key players. Despite a relatively evenly matched first few minutes, Derwent quickly turned on the gas, easily outclassing their opponents. The second half resembled more of an exhibition with Derwent able to score almost at will.

The match began relatively quietly with both sides not really applying much pressure in the early stages, although Alcuin keeper Michael Thurloway was forced into some early saves. Alcuin had some early bright spells with captain Luca Nazzicone making some promising runs which  came to nothing.

As the half progressed, Derwent began to gain the upper hand and Thurloway was forced into coming out to make some brave interceptions. Eventually the pressure showed, Joe Easter intercepted an Olly Harrison corner skilfully slotting the ball in for the opener. From here on it was largely one way traffic, as Derwent’s class began to show, playing with the fluency and togetherness they had failed to display last week.  Almost immediately Derwent scored their second, another Harrison corner met the head of Tom Brandreth who strongly put it in for his second headed goal in a week.

By now Derwent were really in the groove, fresher Eddie Fotheringham who has been a revelation so far this season went on a brilliant individual run, before chipping over the keeper for Derwent’s third. Not only were Derwent deadly in attack they were incredibly solid at the back with any nascent Alcuin attack quickly snuffed out. Alcuin were able to display some decent examples of individual skill, but were hardly ever able to join these up into anything meaningful, as a result, they hardly had a decent change to speak of for the rest of the match.

Fotheringham was a constant threat with his runs absolutely ripping the Alcuin defence to shreds, he had a number of decent chances to increase the lead to four with Thurloway having to make a number of decent saves. However he quickly went from hero to zero when he fumbled an easy catch, admittedly after a difficult bounce, allowing Josh Bew to literally kick the ball out of his hands to score to make it 4-0. Luckily for the keeper the half-time whistle wasn’t far away giving him time to find his composure.

Unfortunately the second half brought no respite, indeed Derwent were even more dominant playing as if it was an exhibition match. Bew almost immediately headed in Derwent’s six, and he quickly followed up this with Derwents seventh and his third, after Harrison and Jules Delay combined, crossing into Bew, who headed it in. Fotheringham also continued to press, making a brilliant run and taking an excellent shot which would probably would have gone in on its own, but was headed in for good measure by the on-fire Bew for his fourth goal of the match. Fotheringham’s performance also deserved another goal and he got it, skilfully slotting the ball in after a Harrison throw in for Derwent’s 8th.

Despite the absolutely dominant scoreline Derwent pressed on, seemingly able to attack at will, meeting only feeble resistance from a totally beleaguered Alcuin side. Easter had another chance to increase the scoreline, Thurloway saved, but Joe Kirby was there to slot in the rebound for Derwent’s 9^th. Delay quickly followed this up with an absolute screamer for goal number 10. Derwent continued to press but the final whistle intervened to put Alcuin out of their misery before any more damage could be done.

With such a dominant win, Derwent appear to have completely recovered from their opening day defeat which may come to be seen as something of a  blip and they will certainly be in contention for honours this season, Alcuin on the other hand will need to quickly pick themselves off the canvas after such a desperate drubbing.

MOTM- Josh Bew