Result – FC Premier 3 – Wanderers 3

Wanderers were back in league action this week with a tough away game against FC Premier. Both sides are unbeaten in the league, but the Wanderers were victors in the recent cup match so we went into the game looking to extend our unbeaten run.

Match Report –
So winter is definitely here as the conditions today were the worst we have played in this season, with a very strong wind (and rain) spoiling the chances of a good football match. We played into the wind for the first half and knew it would be tough, so talked to the boys about keeping it tight and trying to keep the ball on the floor. We started well with some good football in the first 5mins, with Josh and Alfie playing some nice football down our right hand side. As suspected the wind started to play a major factor and we found it hard to get out of our half. 10mins into the game and unfortunately following a quick throw in on the edge of our box one of the Premier players hit a hopefully ball high into our box which wasn’t dealt with and ended up in the bottom corner of our net, 1-0. The wind definitely played a part and we encouraged the boys to keep their heads up. That’s exactly what they did as within 5mins we were level, further good play down our right played in Jack to calmly provide a great finish, 1-1. The wet and wind conditions were making it hard for us to play our normal football and we started to hold on to the ball to much and try to over complicate things. We started to loose the ball in the middle of the park and allowed Premier to push us back, deeper and deeper into our half. We were soon punished when a nice through ball was finished neatly to give Premier the lead again. Although it was hard going against the wind we were still managing to create the odd chance, with both Josh and Lewis having half chances. Towards the end of the first half we were punished again, some poor defending allowed Premier in down our left and a simple cross was headed home to make it 3-1 at half time. We tried to keep positive at half time, knowing that we would now have the wind with us. We made some small changes to our midfield and encouraged the lads to be patience and try to keep playing our football. As suspected the second half started with us pressing Premier back into their half and soon we had created our first chance, with Jack firing over from the edge of the box. Although most of the game was being played in the Premier half, they were still dangerous on the break. Their 2 quick strikers broke through twice and were both denied by excellent stops from Tom. We were still probing at the other end and finally our second goal came following so great work down our left hand side by Liam, a great whipped cross found its way across to Alfie who sneaked in at the back post and finished to make it 3-2. We now felt we could get something out of the game and continued to push forward. We were working so hard that we lost a bit of our shape and allowed Premier to break away and nearly restore their 2 goal lead, thankfully once again they were stopped by another couple of top draw saves from Tom to keep us in the game. The equaliser eventually came midway through the half, a fantastic whipped in corner from Liam eluded everyone and sneaked in at the far post! 3-3! The final 20mins was dominated by us, but we just couldn’t find the winning goal.

Another good performance today against an unbeaten team in very tough conditions. We definitely could have won, but in the end could have also let it slip in the second half. As always some good individual performances this week, Jake was solid at right back, Jack and Alfie were on the score sheet again, plus Liam made a great impact in the second half, but the “Man of the Match” went to Tom Long. Several key saves in the second half kept us in the game and ensured we remained unbeaten. Well done Tom!

Well done to everyone today, tough conditions but we have still not lost in the league so we should take the positives from today. Let’s train hard this week and bring on Silverdale Harriers next Sunday.

Joe, Jason, Ronan and Reece.