Bradford and District FA Senior Cup – Saturday 16th September 2017
Full-time: Idle FC 11 – 0 Girlington FC
Goals: Irving (x3), Mitchell (x3), J Strudwick (x3), Simonett, Carrigan
MOTM: J. Strudwick
Idle FC took a break from their league campaign this weekend with the first cup game of the season in first round of the Bradford and District FA Saturday Senior Cup. Girlington FC were the visitors, a team who Idle were familiar with from previous encounters in the Spen Valley League and a tough test was expected.
In reality, the complete opposite was true. Idle had arguably the strongest squad available this week with defenders, Conor Halligan and Carl Brown returning alongside midfielder Chris Carrigan and goalkeeper, Josh Dickinson. However, there were a couple of notable absentees in Adam Medley and James Royal.
Idle were confident and certainly in good form with 2 wins from 2 in the league and that confidence shone through early in the game with the home team dominating the ball and finding space between the lines to play through the Girlington midfield and defence.
It was a refreshing change to see the Idle boys start quickly as opposed to the customary “You’ve not gotten out of bed yet!” shout from manager, Rob Brook on the side-lines. Girlington did have a couple of chances early on with their striker forcing a couple of decent stops from Dickinson in the Idle goal. However, Idle’s domination of the ball paid off with passing, movement and dribbling that left the Girlington defence chasing shadows.
Ryan Mitchel, Aaron Irving and Jack Strudwick were all linking up well with Carl Dawson and ‘Tim’ Simonett commanding the centre of the pitch. Tom Holmes once again proved his effectiveness and versatility at right midfield putting in some good crosses and generally working hard for the team.
Despite the early chances for Girlington, the Idle defence soon started to look strong with a calm and composed, Lee Cookson handling the big striker well throughout, who was their only real threat. Jamie Allen even had time at one point to do a few kick ups before a clearance taken straight out of the classic Peter Kay John Smith’s advert (stick to what you know Allen and get rid…).
Idle went into the half-time interval 4-0 to the good with goals from Irving, Strudwick and Mitchell.
The second half was to follow suit as Idle really began to turn the proverbial screw. A couple of substitutions saw Halligan replace Allen at centre-back, Brown replace Holmes on the right wing (yeah, probably best to ask Brooky about that one…) and Carrigan replacing Dawson in central midfield. It didn’t disrupt the flow of the game as Idle continued to dominate.
With the game pretty much done and dusted by half-time, Idle continued to play with freedom and created a number of chances in the second half. Strudwick was able to take the Girlington defence apart in his creative midfield role with smart through passes setting up Irving and Mitchell on a number of occasions in a performance that earned him the Man of the Match award.
As always, Mitchell was direct in his play, dribbling at the opposition defence at every opportunity and leaving his marker trailing in his wake the majority of the time, creating chances for himself and others.
The Girlington defence really had no answer to the Idle onslaught and another six goals were added to the haul in the second half. Irving, Mitchell and Strudwick all added to their tallies with Simonett bagging in his third consecutive game from midfield.
Carrigan was rolling back the years and also breaking records for Idle with his quality, long-range strike to conclude the scoring and seeing him become Idle’s oldest ever goal-scorer at 33 years old (32 and 11 months…).
Overall, it was a strong performance from Idle and the biggest win of the season so far putting us comfortably into the second round against Salts Reserves, a team who have knocked us out of the cup in previous seasons and will no doubt be a much sterner test.
But for now, it’s on to face Stanningley Old Boys of the Yorkshire Amateur League Premier Division in the first round of the Terry Marflitt Trophy next week!
By Jamie Allen
The Playmaker 
Posted on September 18, 2017
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