Contemplating playing a side vying for the League title, in bitterly cold and windy conditions, with our own team still devastated by injuries and illnesses, meant that tactics would have to come into play quite heavily today, and that meant more positional changes. Against the wind in the first half, Sam was in goal, Josh came back from illness to take centre-back with Luke, James B retained his RB position and Harry Reid came in as LB. Harry Clark kept the LW role that he played so well in last week, Thomas came in Midfield alongside Marcus, and Lucaas as RW. Birthday boy Liam went up front with Alex. Jack and Owen were ready as subs. 

    The half started off quite intensely as Marcus drove forward with Alex and Thomas, and we went through their midfield quite forcefully. Taken by surprise, Wollaston soon came back into the game by flooding the midfield and trying to play short balls. That allowed Josh to come into his own and the ball was soon being spread to our wingers and full-backs who struggled to get the ball forward enough with the wind so much against them. It almost became a battle of headers as both sides vied for the spinning high balls. Our control was that fraction better, and Thomas and Marcus won just about every ball. This allowed Liam work the ball from midfield forward and we began to control play a little more assuredly. Both Harry's were shooting from the left and Lucaas and Marcus from the right. Harry R had that ounce of extra speed, and made it tell by skipping by a defender and slotting the ball home to make it 1-0. Wollastion really stepped up a gear after that, and we were pinned quite forceably back for the next 15 minutes as they laid siege to us with some excellent passing play, and determined challenges. Our defence, led by Josh and Luke, ably assisted by James B and Harry R, were equal to the task, and despite a number of corners being conceded, Sam held his own as well. Indeed, Sam made some breath-taking solo saves, and showed determined decision-making when we were caught out 4 times in the dying minuted of the half, by some very fast counter-attacks by Wollaston.We held on to go in ahead-but only just.

     The second half saw us have the advantage of the wind behind us and Harry C was taken off in a tactical change that saw Jack sit in front of the defence to launch the ball forward, and Harry R back as LW to use his speed. This was a risk to only have 3 at the back, against such strong opposition, but it was something I felt sure we could cope with. This paid off almost immediately when Jack saw off a few very strong challenges by the invigorated Wollaston team, and Harry R went forward with almost impunity. These surges rattled Wollaston, and when Lucaas was played in by Marcus, we were almost queuing up to take advantage in front of goal-with Liam and Alex going close in the opening few minutes. We then drove forward with six players, and Lucaas cut across the open goal and struck the post so hard it rattled, and agonizingly, the ball looked to be either on the line or just over, but before anyone could dispute it, Marcus tapped it home to leave no doubt at all. Again, Wollaston came right back at us, with some excellent pin-point passing, but Luke made sure they did not pass him with some fiery, accurate, tackling-causing one the opposition's parents to remark at it's quality. We continued to dominate the midfield and almost overrun their forward line at times, and this allowed Harry R to sneak in another goal, right through their defence. We were almost camped out in their half at that point, and were getting a little too confortable, when Wollaston put together an excellent 5-man move that saw the ball played in a one-touch move at high speed, right around our defence, and blast by a stranded Sam. It was against the run of play, and with tired legs showing, James made way for Owen, and Harry C came on in his old role as LB and Jack made way in a tactical move that reverted us back to 4-4-2. We then weathered a five-minute flurry of attacks and long balls, but Thomas, and especially Liam, came back to help out, before joing the next few attacks. As the ball continued to bounce around their goalmouth, Alex latched on a fired home the goal that killed the game off. By now Wollaston had lost their fire and put virtually everyone behind the ball, which stifled our play a little, but we still looked like scoring as the final whistle went.

    The score doesn't lie, and we played to our strengths today, were tactically astute, and played that pass and move game that we've been working on for so long. We took apart, and scored 4 goals against a team that has only conceded 10 goals all season, and this was certainly their heaviest defeat. Every player played to the best of their ability-I can ask no more. We have four games left this season-let's keep this up and make it count.

 

Man of the Match-the hardest decision in ages, with many contenders-but Luke wins it for his lion-hearted performance this week. Every attack starts in defence-keep it up!   

 

My thanks to the parents and friends who come every week, rain, snow or shine, Liam for coming on his birthday (many happy returns), our sponsors, Sexton's, Raunds for the great work on the pitch, Brendan Hulse (Wollaston Vics Manager) and his team-for a great fast and furious game, Arden for reffing, and Ian for his scrupulously-fair linesmanship.