Hatful of hollow - Profligate Panthers create everything and come away with nothing

9 October 2010

Never in the field of sporting conflict have the Panthers created so much and scored so few . . .

The U11 Panthers travelled to Stretford full of confidence from recent victories to take on the Vics on this blustery autumn morning. The first half was a fairly hum drum affair with some sharp tackling from the opposition and Wilmslow enjoying most of the possession but toiling to convert this into goals. Jack opened the scoring with a crisp left foot strike after carrying the ball into the Vics' box. However the lead was cancelled out shortly afterwards as Stretford scored directly from a corner that sneaked in at the near post. 1-1 after 30 minutes and no sign of the drama that was to follow.

The second half was full of chances and full of goals. Unfortunately for the Panthers, they created nearly all the chances but scored less than half the goals! After falling behind 2-1, Dan levelled the scores with a great long-range effort that the Vics ‘keeper was unable to prevent rifling into the top corner. Then a strong run and an equally dramatic strike from Matias gave Wilmslow a 3-2 lead. In the following 15 minutes the Panthers failed to convert no less than eight close-range chances - hitting the post, the bar and invariably the 'keeper. Meanwhile, the Vics converted their chances well, scoring three without reply. As full-time approached Wilmslow continued to press and Josh made no mistake when presented with a simple tap-in after good work from Matias. There was still time for the Panthers to create and miss two more chances before the ref brought proceedings to a close.

So, a 5-4 defeat from a game in which the Panthers had the lion's share of the goal-scoring opportunities. But that's life. Thankfully, most of the players were sufficiently stoical in defeat to recognise that they were responsible for their own downfall. I doubt (hope!) we will see another game this season where so many chances lead to so few goals, although the excellent performance of the Vics goalkeeper should not go without a mention as a contributing factor.

MOTM awards this week chosen by Henners' dad, Ian. Bronze to Dan for an unstinting battling display in midfield; Silver to Matias for a cracking goal and some penetrating running and Gold to George for his second excellent performance in as many weeks.

Source: A Wheeler

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