Wyrley Panthers v Shire Oak Acorns Friendly Match

You cannot fault these two performances from the lads. As many of the lads had been at Kev Maginness’ 40th Birthday party the night before running around like mad men, the coaches expected a tired lethargic display. However, they were pleasantly surprised to see them start their first game incredibly brightly against an extremely strong side.

The Panthers took the lead early in the game following great endeavour and industry from Josh Reynolds, who set up Ashton ‘Goals’ Cooper to finish clinically as always.

Goals Cooper was on his toes again and latched onto a quick-throw from George Whitehouse to dispatch the ball into the net to claim his second.

The second half started as the first half finished with the Panthers on the attack creating chances galore. The next goal resulted from a quickly taken corner from Lucas ‘Tibbsey’ Tibbs which appeared to take a deflection off a defender before ending up in the net.

The final goal was worth the wait. Ben ‘Whizza’ Herrington, who had done a Rory McIlroy and turned up just as the game was about to start, took the ball from the right on the run and guided it expertly from outside of the box into the top left corner of the net. A very difficult skill to implement and Whizza did it with ease.

A superb tireless display from the boys!

Wyrley Panthers v Colron Friendly Match

The coaches made some changes in the second game and the boys continued to put the same effort and endeavour into this game. Colron appeared to have signed a couple of new players in the last few weeks and in particular their very skilful and physically strong winger put Panthers under pressure from the off.

However, the Panthers played their collective game and continued to dig in as a team. George Whitehouse and Ashton ‘Goals’ Cooper did particularly well preventing the winger from getting his team on the score sheet and getting themselves the man of the match trophies.

Also, another faultless display from Louis Beasley in goal, who continues to deputise for Lewis Rochelle. A big thank you and well done goes to Louis.

A tough game played out by two very talented teams with chances coming and going at both ends. The Panthers were probably the team more content with the draw.

Squad today consisted of: Louis Beasley, Sam Scott, George Whitehouse, Josh Reynolds, Rio Parkes-Mahoney, Ben Herrington, Lucas Tibbs, Josh Mason and Ashton Cooper.