3rd Team Vs Telford and Wrekin 4s

We turned up at St Georges, on a surprisingly warm afternoon to play a clearly confident Telford side, standing second in the league and unbeaten this season, neither of which we were able to claim. However, never has the adage “a game of two halves” been more aptly applied.  Then first half went pretty much to the form book with a (generally) youthful and well drilled Telford side moving the ball around quickly and using the width of the pitch well. Whilst a good defensive performance prevented a number of goal bound opportunities, some good play from Telford combined with some very hard/fast strikes, and a little luck saw them build up a 4-0 lead by half time.  However, the game was not as one sided as the score line would suggest. A couple of the goals had been a little fortuitous and we were also moving the ball well in midfield and we had had more than one opportunity to pull a goal back.  Not surprisingly the general message at half time was, “forget what has happened, focus on what we should be doing and let’s see if we can win the second half”, as there is no way we are going to pull back a four-goal deficit… or so we (and indeed Telford) thought!

The second half started much the same, but we were holding our own and the midfield and forward line were pressing the Telford D and after about 8 minutes Tom Parry pulled one back, and despite some grumbling from Telford, the Umpire held her ground and the goal stood – so a good start and we might hold our own in the second half then… Five minutes later and Tom pops up to score a second from open play and now we are feeling much better and Telford and beginning to moan amongst themselves – all very helpful. More importantly they seemed to start focussing on what we were doing, rather than on playing their own game, which had stood them in such good stead in the first half.  Another five minutes and Martin Jandu puts a third past the Telford keeper and we really started to wonder of we could get something out of this after all? Telford are now decidedly nervy and beginning to ask the umpires how long was left… always a good sign. We continued to distribute and press forward and when Telford responded we had a solid defence we could rely on.

Then with 8 minutes to go, we got our just deserts for a brilliant fightback and Martin got the equaliser. and if anything. we were now the dominant team and Telford were looking at the very real possibility of a first defeat of the season, having been 4-0 up at half time.  Perhaps that was too much to hope for - we held Telford at bay without much difficulty for the rest of the game and had a good call for a short corner denied in the dying seconds of the game. Had the decision gone our way, who knows what might have resulted?  However, this takes nothing away from a fantastic performance from every member of the team and it is fair to say that at full-time, the team sitting second in the league were far more grateful to hear the final whistle than their erstwhile opposition!

Players MOM from votes received goes to Rowley with Ahmed in second place.