Regular reserve game goers over the past two or three seasons will have got used to the spine of the side containing the familiar quartet of names Anthony, Parslow, Fish and Fleetwood during this time, but all of them were, for various reasons, missing from today's hard fought 2-0 win over Plymouth reserves.
With Byron Anthony away on loan at Forest Green, when I heard that Danny Parslow was having a trial with the jacks I wondered who would be filling the central defensive births for the reserves. Well today it was an all new partnership of Rhys Weston and Northern Irishman Michael Corcoran who is captain of the Under 18 Academy side and a converted central midfielder.
Weston played the first forty five minutesd before giving way to Ryan Morgan and, between the three of them, they barely gave Plymouth a sniff of goal (in fact I'm struggling to remember the visitors having a single shot on target).
Mind you, City didn't create much either in a game where the two sides tended to cancel each other out for long periods.
City had slightly the better of the first half as both Weston and Jamal Easter sent virtually identical far post half chances way over the bar (neither miss was as bad as I make them sound!). However, it was Andrea Ferretti who came closest to breaking the deadlock when his powerful header from an Easter corner beat Argyle kepper McCormack, but was knocked off the line by a covering defender.
Apart from those incidents and a misdirected edge of the area free kick from Argyle's Luke Summerfield (pretty sure he ex City player Kevins son), that was about it for a pretty ordinary first forty five minutes.
Mind you, "pretty ordinary" looked brilliant compared to the fare served up in the first thirty minutes of the second half as neither team mustered a single goal threat between them! Plymouth were a little bit more forceful going forward but Corcoran, showing his midfielder's passing ability at times, was making a tidy and assured first reserve team appearance and Morgan was proving an impressive substitute so you couldn't really see the visitors scoring.
Trouble was though, City weren't creating anything either and it looked for all the world like a 0-0 stalemate until our full backs took a hand to create a couple of quick fire goals around the seventy five minute mark.
Firstly, Jermaine Darlington went on a long forward run which saw him burst past a couple of defenders and play a low near post cross in that was clinically put away left footed by Ferretti from about eight yards out.
A few minutes later, captain Joe Jacobson picked up a misplaced pass around the half way line and went on a forceful run which took him into the penalty area where he was brought down by a Plymouth defender. If I am being honest, I thought the penalty award was a bit on the harsh side, but Jamal Easter confidently sent McCormack the wrong way from the spot and City had wrapped up another win as they preserved their unbeaten record for the season in competitve matches.
Easter may have scored right at the end when Morgan fed him after busrting forward, but there was no more scoring as City edged a game of few chances.
Overall, it was more of a solid team performance today rather than any individuals stealing the show, but, I couldn't help noticing that Jamal Easter, playing in a right sided midfield role, put over more crosses in the first half than the first team seem to have done in their last five home games!