With Cambridge Futsal Women’s team having a weekend break, "the Bees" Men were back in FA National Futsal Series action v MK Mavericks at the home of the Paralympic’s, the magnificent facilities of the Stoke Mandeville Indoor Stadium.
On a court that is used by Englands wheelchair representative teams in various sports, spectators were able to enjoy a seated balcony view of the action such is the superb design of the venue.
An exciting, tense and end to end action match was observed.
Both teams began the first 10 minutes by trying long range shots, different combinations and set plays from dead ball situations but none were resulting in any real test of either keeper.
The deadlock was broken around 12mins in when Cambridge, following a time out, attempted to try fly keeper but were caught in possession infront of their empty goal for a simple tap in for the home side. 1-0
This seemed to spur the Bees who then began to create more problems for the Maverick’s keeper and within 2mins ALFONSO Lanza tapped in a parried shot to level the scores 1-1.
With 3mins left on the 1st Half clock, ANGEL Martinez, in typical fashion, nutmegged the keeper to grab the lead for the Bees.1-2
HT MK Mavericks 1 Cambridge 2
Second half saw the Bees thoughts still in the changing rooms as within a minute of the start, the home side drew level 2-2 to rapturous noise from the home supporters.
However, within a minute, ANGEL grabbed his second goal by commanding a rare bouncing ball in the home sides penalty area and despite being surrounded by defenders managed to expertly control his volley into the roof of the net. 2-3
The Mavericks weren’t to give up that easily and with 10mins remaining drew level from a well converted corner set piece.3-3
With 7mins remaining, a lovely 1-2 along the wing started by a throw from the Bees keeper Jose LIMA, saw Jonny TOFT’s hard & low shot nestle in the corner of the net past the despairing keeper.3-4.
Within 20seconds of the restart, a quick counter attack was finished by ALFONSO for his second of the game. A cushion for the Bees.3-5
With 5mins remaining however, a 3v2 counter attack by the home side saw them claw one back 4-5 to a cacophony of noise from the home supporters.
A change of Bees keeper saw Chay JAKES between the posts for the final 5, tense minutes, where the visitors gave a great exhibition of keeping ball possession and grinding out the away win.
FT MK Mavericks 4 Cambridge 5
Bees Goalscorers:
ALFONSO Lanza ⚽️⚽️
ANGEL Martinez ⚽️⚽️
Jonny TOFTS ⚽️
Sunday sees the Bees back on the road in the FA NFS Super Cup away to a team from East London.