Town Fight For First Points of the Season - We Have Lift Off!

25 September 2011

Wilmslow Town 1 V Woodhouse Park 1

After last weeks unfortunate result The Town fancied their chances against Woodhouse Park. Wilmslow are still trying to gel with four new players and several new partnerships being formed in the team.

The management laid down the markers informing the players that under no circumstances would substitutions be made for the sake of it. Players making the starting line up did so on merit. They lined up with Henry in nets, Jordi as captain at right back, the Smith’s Sam and Jim as centre backs and Lawton moving into left back allowing Deano to push up on the left wing. Owain and Bundy kept their places in the middle of the park and Oli Ford on the right wing. The new look forward line of Brandon and Tommy kept their places also. The subs bench was made up of Milan, Oli M, Benno and surprisingly Alex Jacko Jackson.

From the start Wilmslow dominated with the Warrior Bundy swashbuckling in midfiels and Owain picking our laser guided passes. It was a pity that the superior possession wasn’t converted into goals. A mixture of bad luck, very bad refereeing and poor finishing conspired against the whites.

The Woodhouse keeper didn’t have a save to make throughout the entire half. Bundy fired a few shots wide and seemed to take too many touches where it mattered. Tommy always had his back to goal when he received it allowing defenders to snuff out any threat from him and there was precious little else to worry a resolute defence that grew in stature in the face of a toothless attack.

Despite their lack of real chances, Wilmslow pressed and pressed for an opener. From a corner Jim headed against the bar and the game had an air of inevitability about it when Woddhouse broke free on a rare attack. Their usual long punt to the strikers looped over Sam who got half a head on it but couldn’t quite stretch enough to preven the ball falling to the forward who finished well to make it 0-1 after a ridiculous 5 minutes of extra time. The ref found another 2 minutes from somewhere and only blew for half time after pleas from both managers to bring the half to a close.

The troops came off feeling aggrieved to be on the end of some inexplicable refereeing decisions and such a late goal. The team talk was simple. Get more shots off, keep pressing and believe!

They started well again and pushed Woodhouse back from the restart. The visitors clawed their way back into the game with some more hoofs forward putting the defence on the back foot but Town kept cool and Jordi, Jim, Sam and Lawto stood firm marshalled by Henry.

The management brought on Jacko for Tommy up front to add a more direct approach. Deano made way for Lawto on the wing anllowing Benno in at lefty back. Oli Ford, quietened down by a verbal volley from the woodhouse rock in defence made way for Oli M. The changes added a new freshness into the team and unforunatley Milan’s services weren’t called for from the bench.

The Town equalizer came after a scuffed shot from Bundy after a surging drive into the box was helped goalwatrds by Brandon and Jacko pounced on it to help it over the line to draw Town level.

Town went for the throat sensing that the visitors had little else to offer. Despite the pressure though, they still didn’t test the keeper with anything meaningful. Another long range effort from Woodhouse resulted in Jordi making his second goal line clearance.

The truth is that Town deserved the win and Woodhouse were lucky to play them at a stage in the season when they are still gelling as a team. The quality in the side is there for all to see and at the end of the season the Town will be right up there with  the leaders.

The boys travel to Timperley next week for a Cheshire Cup match against Unicorn

Source: erik

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