4th Team Vs Aldridge & Walsall 4

Old Wulfs 4ths this week had a squad of 13 players and were up against a Walsall & Aldridge 4th team comprising of 10 men for a 16:30hrs start time at WGS. (The first under floodlights?)

OW’s started the game full of confidence, and instantly started to probe the oppositions defence with several players producing good individual runs and getting shots anyway but slightly wide of the target. With OW ringing the ball well and marking players Walsall & Aldridge were struggling to move the ball past their own 23m line particularly on their 16’s. OW continued to create chance after chance on numerous occasions only for the ball to be miss hit or what was becoming the now too familiar ‘Fresh Air Shot’. The breakthrough finally came at around 10 mins from a penalty corner.  Richie injected the ball which was received at the top of the D with OW shooting at goal, only for the ball to be miss hit which somehow despite its slow speed bobbled and found its way to Richie on the near post, who accurately dispatched the ball into the back of the net 1-0 to OW. Old Wulfs remained confident and were dominating and in control of the game even if they only had the one goal to show for it.  Despite the dominance Walsall & Aldridge continued to play with spirit and were not going to lie down, they continued to close down OW and put in some excellent tackles.  It was during such a play that Walsall & Aldridge made good progress towards OW 23 line, only for the ball to run out of play resulting in a side-line ball to OW. However OW carelessly gave the ball away from the hit, squandering possession far too easily. OW defence & midfield failed to react and with several players now caught out of position, the ball was played into the D with precision and was met by the unmarked centre forward from which Walsall & Aldridge equalised 1-1.  Spurred on by conceding, OW began to move the ball better as a team and went on to score a further two goals to make it 3-1 at half time.

HT 3-1

OW began the second half where they left off dominating the game and following the half time team talk began to utilise the width to great effect. OW wide midfielders (Lewis and Baz) were providing support to the front two with intelligent runs, losing their markers on more than one occasion. The full backs and central midfielders equally supporting and providing options for the ‘simple’ pass. OW were moving the ball around nicely, and were becoming almost totally in control, with their goalkeeper for the large part, a spectator, that’s not to say that Walsall & Aldridge didn’t venture into OW 23 or D, but such forays were limited to one or two players, OW defence maintained focus and in control. OW found themselves another 2 goals up within the first 15minutes of the 2nd half.  OW continued to rotate players, and with the tiring legs of the opposition went on to score a further 5 goals in the final quarter.

FT 10-1 win

Scorers: Richie Roberts 5, James Fisher 2, Finn Townsend 1, Lewis Brain 1, Josh Kohli 1.

Players MOM: Richie Roberts, with Baz Hayward second, and a few others on one vote.

The Good: A convincing win against a depleted side, Exploited space & maintained width, Showed for each other to receive the ‘simple’ pass, Intelligent off the ball running, Good ‘ringing’ of the ball on16’s and free hits.

The Bad: Loss of concentration when dominating games, Too tense when shooting on goal.

The Reward: Played 3, Won 2, Lost 1, 5th in the table.