Result – Silverdale 1 – Wanderers 5;

The Wanderers were on the road again this week for our first meeting with Silverdale Harriers, and so we were looking to re-again our winning formula following a run of a couple of tight draws.

Match Report –
We went into today with a full squad to choose from and made only one starting change following last weeks tough draw. Liam’s impact during the second half last week meant he deserved a starting place on the left wing. We faced a difficult first half, playing up a slight slope and into a fairly strong wind. The pitch was small and had some long patches of grass so we talked before the game of making sure we used both our flanks. We started the game very brightly playing some good football and winning a lot of the early challenges. We instantly got some joy down our left hand side with Liam, Ade and Jack finding a lot of time and space. Several chances came and went as we struggled to find that final decisive pass, but we were dominating the game and it seemed only a matter of time. Sure enough 10 mins in and following a series of throw ins down our left, one was flicked on by Jack and found Josh in the box, who neatly side stepped past the defender and finished calmly to open the scoring 1-0 Wanderers! From the re-start we continued to press and were winning the midfield battles, with Owen and Callum controlling the game. This lead to our second soon after, when Callum broke through a tackle and played a through ball for Josh to run on too, the keeper came rushing out but was unable to stop Josh running on to tap home to make it 2-0. With the wind behind them we knew that Silverdale would create some chances in the first half and the first came following a good through ball, their striker picked it up and unleashed a fierce shot which produced an excellent one handed save from Tom. Their second chance came shortly after, when we failed to clear a corner properly and a speculative shot from the edge of the box found the top corner to get them a goal back. 2-1. The rest of the first half was again dominated by us, but we couldn’t add to the scoreline.
For the second half we made a couple of changes down our right and they pretty much paid off straight away, within 5mins it was 3-1. Good play down our right ended with a lofted cross into the box, Jack met the ball before the advancing keeper to head the ball over him, only for it to be handled on the line by the covering defender. Jack stepped up and converted the penalty with a calm finish. It wasn’t too long before we had our forth, again good work by Lewis and Callum down our right found Josh in the box, who finished neatly at the near post to grab his hat-trick and make it 4-1. We were now in total control and made our last few substitutions for the final 15mins. Our 5th goal came in the final 10mins, when Lewis played a lovely ball into Alfie who slid the it past the keeper from a tight angle to make it 5-1. The final minutes saw us create several more chances but we just couldn’t convert them and add to the score.

Great all around performance today, some good football at times on a difficult/small pitch. We could have probably grabbed a few more goals, but in the end it was a well deserved win. As always some good individual performances this week, Owen and Cal were solid in the middle and once again Jack lead the line well, but in the end for his great hat-trick the “Man of the Match” went to Josh Lees. After a couple of weeks with out a goal Josh was back to his best with 3 good strikes. Well done Josh!

Well done to everyone, back to winning ways and our unbeaten league run continues, let’s keep it going! As always lets train hard and work on those key areas, bring on Lodge Farm at the Academy next Sunday.

Joe, Jason, Ronan and Reece.