U15's pay price - for not taking chances

4 October 2009

I guess this match could be simply summed up the result that got away, with Town’s players and away supporters feeling somewhat disappointed not to have come away with at least a point after what was on the whole a fairly solid performance against decent looking opposition.

The early omens looked promising as Town were mostly camped out in Parkwyddn’s half for the first 20 minutes, in which time a number of good scoring opportunities were carved out but not taken and how often have you seen teams dominate a game yet are punished against the run of play for not converting all the pressure into goals – well, that was pretty much the script for today. Danny had a couple of decent early chances slice away from the target and attacking runs by Kirky, Ben and Tom didn’t get the finishes they deserved.

With Town committing lots of players forward, a Parkwyddn break stretched the defence, with Town ultimately paying a heavy price for not clearing the danger when they had an opportunity, allowing the opposition to take an undeserved lead with a soft goal. This seemed to rock Town’s confidence, allowing the home team seize the initiative and it was no real surprise when Parkwydnn doubled their lead, once again with a quick break that had Town’s defence outnumbered 3 to 1. Two brave, point blank saves by Simon kept Town in the game otherwise it may have been game over by the half time break.

Whatever Julian said to the lads at half time seemed to stir them into action as they looked a much more confident outfit, despite playing the 2nd half uphill into the gusty wind (and between downpours, and blinding sun). Danny pulled a goal back fairly soon after the restart to make it 2-1, but unfortunately Tom’s brilliantly taken volley from a cross was disallowed for off-side, which must have been very marginal.

Just like the 1st half, most of the early pressure came from Town, but they just could not carve out that final killer finish to all the good build up and approach work. Once again, failure to clear the ball in defence when there was no real danger gifted the opposition another soft goal against the run of play as Parkwyddn re-established a two goal cushion at 3-1.

Unlike the 1st half however, heads didn’t drop this time and Reece was unlucky not to pull a goal back with a strong run through the opposition defence, but the ‘keeper was equal to his shot. In the end, sustained pressure told when Dave buried a chance at the far post from a long corner to make it 3-2 and a fight-back looked on the cards.

Sadly though, and not for want of effort, Town just couldn’t manage to get the equaliser, although they came close on a couple of occasions. With more players committed up front, Parkwyddn always looked a threat on the break, but their best chance was denied late on by a superb goal line clearance by Ben, shortly after which the final whistle brought the game to a disappointing conclusion right on time – sadly though for Town, no imaginary 8 minutes added time here for late goal glory unlike at that other place down the road!

In summary, the overall performance was pretty solid, but a bit more quality up front today would probably have sealed this game by half time. From a neutral’s point of view I guess you would say this was an entertaining game, something that today’s referee needs to be given some credit for, as he handled proceedings with a calm authority and impartiality which allowed the game to flow.

Finally, there was one more memorable moment, which the poor Parkwyddn player concerned will probably remember more than others, and that was when a bounce from a very low grubber-kick of a clearance by Simon zipped up off the ground and made what was clearly painful “ball-to-ball” contact, which is something only us blokes can really understand. Thankfully though, the poor lad was able to resume playing after a bit of treatment... it’s astounding what healing properties the threat of a cold sponge can achieve.

Man of the Match : D Fallows

Source: M Shaw

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