RD 7 - Vs VUW Beavers, Wakefield 1, Monday 19 May

Write-up By Dec(s) 

After a poor performance last week we were back to the artificial in Wakefield where nobody could use the turf as an excuse.

The squad was boosted with the return of several players meaning we had a squad of 16 to select starters from once Fowler's mummy had brought him down his gear and his earmuffs.

CJ showed us what we had been missing in warmup with his first shot which ended up in Happy Valley. It didn't get much better with shots clearing the fence and not many posing Dave any problems.

The game kicked off and we settled into the game pretty quickly looking to pass the ball around at the back and move it up the wings. The first half hour we created some half-chances from long shots with good interplay from Pete and Nick on the left and Todd and Andrew on the right. 

Uni came into it more as the game progressed with their game plan of sitting deep and pumping it long, hoping to catch us on the break becoming apparent. 

They got a lucky goal from after we failed to clear the ball which fell to their forward outside the box and he took a shot which took a massive deflection and unfortunately wrongfooted Dave in goal. 

Our best chance of the half came right at the death when Jason feinted to shoot, ghosted passed a defender, composed himself and picked his spot in the far corner only for his shot to drift a foot wide.

We started second half brightly getting better possession in their half and earning lots of corners but struggling to get any decent opportunities due to their huge defenders. 

Most of our good chances came from long shots where CJ, Fowler and Corey all had decent efforts but we struggled to get opportunities in behind their defence.

They scored a second goal through claiming a throw-in that was ours and quickly taking it. The ball broke to their forward outside the box while half the team moaned at the ref and then shot into the top corner not giving Dave any chance.

The ref ignore our protests frequently saying "What do you want me to do?" - Em the opposite to what you are doing or "F**k off home" came to mind.

We continued to chase the game admirably not letting our heads drop managing to get Andrew in behind the defence once only for it to fall on his bad foot.

Neil's never-say-die spirit showed when the ref ignored a blatant foul on him and he continued to fight for the ball winning two fifty-fifty tackles in a row cleaning out the opponents like a snowplough.

In the end we were a bit unfortunate to lose to the long ball merchants who scored 2 bad goals from their only real chances but we probably should have tested their keeper more

Points:

Damo: 2

Distributed the ball well setting up attacks from deep and was always in the right position sweeping up at the back.

Pete: 2

Boundless energy in defence and always overlapping in attack looking for the ball and set up numerous attacks in the first half.

Ganesy:1

Aggressive in defence always nipping out in front of their opponents to take the ball. Also, sent a header in the correct direction!!!

Dave: 1

Swept up well behind the defence and was blameless for the goals