UEL Men’s 1st XI Football team will look to kick on from last week’s 2-0 victory against Imperial when they take on Surrey University at home.
UEL sit top of the BUCS South Eastern 1A division, two points clear of nearest rivals Reading, who still have a game in hand over UEL.
Team News
A week after their convincing victory over Imperial, coach Ryan Gordon revealed he had a near full-strength squad to choose from ahead of the game with Surrey.
“We re missing Saido, he’ll be away due to an illness in his family and that’s a big loss.
“I want to reiterate to the players, that myself and all the support staff fully support the boys off the pitch as well as on the pitch, and that’s really important.
“Michelangelo is also out, due to an injury he picked up in training, and that’s a shame because he’s just joined up with the squad and played really well on his debut.
“However, other than that, we have a full fit squad, with Amadou (UEL top scorer) returning, with his experience sure to be vital for the team.”
Carrying On
During last week’s fixture, UEL proved to be a frustrating outfit to watch with several chances spurned in quest to extend their narrow lead.
Even though chances were spurned in UEL’s quest for victory, coach Gordon was happy all the work during the winter break paid off in a comfortable victory for the boys.
“You know we got the result we wanted, and during the winter break I did a lot of work on planning for last weeks game, and ultimately we got the result.
“First half the boys did well, we changed the system, however we ended up reverting back to the system that we know, and that’s good because it shows flexibility.
“We created a number of chances in the second half, we had a missed penalty and the keeper pulled off some great saves. However, I got the performance I wanted in the end, so I think this sets us up for a tough game tomorrow.”
Opposition
Due to UEL’s and Reading’s domination in the league this season, today’s opposition sit nine points off UEL in third.
Surrey are currently winless in six games in all competitions, after starting the season brightly with back-to-back wins. The team from Guildford have also conceded 11 goals in their last six games, at an average of just under two a game.
With the gap to UEL at the top being nine points for Surrey, and with the team only having three games remaining in their season, the game seems to be a dead rubber for the third-placed side.
With three games remaining in UEL’s season, and Reading holding a game in hand, victory for UEL is paramount if they are to be seriously considering promotion back to the top division of BUCS.