At last, our first home game on our new ground, and it's only nearly October! September 29th to be precise. Going into this game we can see that if we beat Rotherham here, despite being so early on in the season it actually puts us in a good position for promotion. This is mainly due to who our rivals are and the size of our league; with so few teams in, 3 points become incredibly valuable.
This game however, could not have gone much worse:
- With a still injured Mark Robinson and an unavailable Richard Thornton, we move to a third choice goalkeeper Tom Jones. He turns up fit enough to play - just not in goal on account of his sprained wrist - so we move to a fourth choice, James Clarke.
- Some of the tetchiest displays of behaviour I've ever seen from WBCFC.
- In front Church folk who have turned out to see us. (Many thanks and apologies to you)
- ...Though it was a very disappointing turn out, and brings the level of support into question.
- Not only was behaviour off, but the football was too: the game finished 6-2 in favour of our visitors.
- When I say finished, i mean it in its loosest sense, since the final whistle never blew. In the 85th/86th minute skipper Danny Hayton dislocated his knee and the rest of the game was unplayable. An ambulance, gas and air, screaming and blood drained faces ensued.
Needless to say, the pre-arranged 'sandwiches and such' at West Yorkshire Sports Club was not as fun as it was designed to be.
Wakefield Baptist Church 2-6 Rotherham Elim
Showing posts with label League. Show all posts
Showing posts with label League. Show all posts
Monday, 22 October 2007
Yorvik Blades (York) 22.09.07
Second game of the season is another away game in York, this time to face the fearsome sounding Yorvik Blades. In reality, Yorvik Blades have always been a team that we have never quite beaten despite being evenly matched or, sometimes even, clearly better.
By half-time we're 1-0 down. However, following a fearsome head-of-department type telling off from Gary Stevens we make an incredible fight back.
Shortly into the second half wakefield pulled back the all important equaliser through James Walker, however the real action emerged about 5 minutes later when it was decided to bring on James Clark off the bench with only 30 minutes of play remaining would this make a differnce.
First of all he picks the ball up wide left jigs infield and pops a shot out which is saved by the keeper and parried across the face of the goal leaving Tom Winstanley the easiest of tap ins, 2-1.
Then again chasing down onto a ball down the left side of the box finds himself with an unbeknown amount of time and uses the time effectively to deliver an inch perfect cross to Tom Winstanley on the edge of the six yard box 3-1, 5 minutes later following a goal mouth scramble the ball finds itself at James Clarks feet who cooly slots home from 3 yards 4-1.
10 minutes to go and the ball is won by James Clark just inside the opponents half he lofts a ball high in the air over the defence Tom Winstanley brings the ball down with a deft touch and finishes from approximately 20 yds into the bottom near corner 5-1.
In the dying minutes we take our foot off the gas and allow Jorvik to steal a goal back but it is of little importance the damage has been done and we take 3 points on their turf job well done.
To top it off James Clark is nominated as Man of the Match having played a mere 30 minutes of the second half.
Yorvik Blades 2-5 Wakefield Baptist Church.
By half-time we're 1-0 down. However, following a fearsome head-of-department type telling off from Gary Stevens we make an incredible fight back.
Shortly into the second half wakefield pulled back the all important equaliser through James Walker, however the real action emerged about 5 minutes later when it was decided to bring on James Clark off the bench with only 30 minutes of play remaining would this make a differnce.
First of all he picks the ball up wide left jigs infield and pops a shot out which is saved by the keeper and parried across the face of the goal leaving Tom Winstanley the easiest of tap ins, 2-1.
Then again chasing down onto a ball down the left side of the box finds himself with an unbeknown amount of time and uses the time effectively to deliver an inch perfect cross to Tom Winstanley on the edge of the six yard box 3-1, 5 minutes later following a goal mouth scramble the ball finds itself at James Clarks feet who cooly slots home from 3 yards 4-1.
10 minutes to go and the ball is won by James Clark just inside the opponents half he lofts a ball high in the air over the defence Tom Winstanley brings the ball down with a deft touch and finishes from approximately 20 yds into the bottom near corner 5-1.
In the dying minutes we take our foot off the gas and allow Jorvik to steal a goal back but it is of little importance the damage has been done and we take 3 points on their turf job well done.
To top it off James Clark is nominated as Man of the Match having played a mere 30 minutes of the second half.
Yorvik Blades 2-5 Wakefield Baptist Church.
St Michael's (York) 15.09.07
The season kicked off with a trip North on the 15th September to play St Michael's.
There seemed to be a different and slightly unfamiliar feeling about our approach to this season, something like confidence. It may have had something to do with purely an opportunity to start afresh; it may have been having had a slight shift in personel over the summer; it could have been that at the end of the summer a very cobbled together version of us played and beat a team of 13 players (though they were mostly around the age of 16) in a very unorthodox friendly, or it could just have been that we were excited about playing again.
We arrive and warm up and realise that our first game is St Michael's third. The other thing to mention at this point is that our goalkeeper, Mark 'The Cat' Robinson is out due to an ackilies injury which will keep him at bay for a while yet, so in goal we have a rather brave but green outfield player, Richard 'I hope I can catch' Thornton. Kick off - and we cannot get to the ball let alone hang on to it, they win possesion of everything and then simply pass it, seemingly, through us. When half-time comes around we seem to have begun to have found a little something, we are 1-0 down and we see the potential to alter that (in our favour). We were right: our first goal of the season and it's a new boy, a defender no less, 'Dan Metcalf centre half'. He scored a very convicing header off a corner and we're level; 1-1.
The score doesn't stay this way for long though, and indeed, not long after that either, we found ourselves on the wrong end of 3-1. Not only this, but with twenty minutes remaining (by which time some of our lads who are a little bit shy of match fit are virtually stationary) two of our twelve players have to leave for a prior commitment. Mathematically that takes us from 11 on the field and one sub, to 10 men on the field.
This game is now, if it wasn't before, an uphill battle. Having been with this club from the start there's one strange thing i've noticed about it, that is that it seems to play better football when it is down to ten men. This was no less true on this occassion. With ten minutes remaining we took the scoreline on a wild ride to 3-2. Andy Amoss was able to capatilise, with a perfectly pitched lob, on a hard fought through-ball from skipper Danny Hayton.
Despite further wranglings and wishing, this was where the score remained. No points and a combination of frustration (that we could have done better) and satisfaction (that for a first game, against better opposition and with a replacement keeper and (almost) 10 men for a chunk of the game).
St Michael's 3-2 Wakefield Baptist Church.
There seemed to be a different and slightly unfamiliar feeling about our approach to this season, something like confidence. It may have had something to do with purely an opportunity to start afresh; it may have been having had a slight shift in personel over the summer; it could have been that at the end of the summer a very cobbled together version of us played and beat a team of 13 players (though they were mostly around the age of 16) in a very unorthodox friendly, or it could just have been that we were excited about playing again.
We arrive and warm up and realise that our first game is St Michael's third. The other thing to mention at this point is that our goalkeeper, Mark 'The Cat' Robinson is out due to an ackilies injury which will keep him at bay for a while yet, so in goal we have a rather brave but green outfield player, Richard 'I hope I can catch' Thornton. Kick off - and we cannot get to the ball let alone hang on to it, they win possesion of everything and then simply pass it, seemingly, through us. When half-time comes around we seem to have begun to have found a little something, we are 1-0 down and we see the potential to alter that (in our favour). We were right: our first goal of the season and it's a new boy, a defender no less, 'Dan Metcalf centre half'. He scored a very convicing header off a corner and we're level; 1-1.
The score doesn't stay this way for long though, and indeed, not long after that either, we found ourselves on the wrong end of 3-1. Not only this, but with twenty minutes remaining (by which time some of our lads who are a little bit shy of match fit are virtually stationary) two of our twelve players have to leave for a prior commitment. Mathematically that takes us from 11 on the field and one sub, to 10 men on the field.
This game is now, if it wasn't before, an uphill battle. Having been with this club from the start there's one strange thing i've noticed about it, that is that it seems to play better football when it is down to ten men. This was no less true on this occassion. With ten minutes remaining we took the scoreline on a wild ride to 3-2. Andy Amoss was able to capatilise, with a perfectly pitched lob, on a hard fought through-ball from skipper Danny Hayton.
Despite further wranglings and wishing, this was where the score remained. No points and a combination of frustration (that we could have done better) and satisfaction (that for a first game, against better opposition and with a replacement keeper and (almost) 10 men for a chunk of the game).
St Michael's 3-2 Wakefield Baptist Church.
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