A home match at last! On a calm day, we had the chance to make amends for our first league defeat of the season of last week, taking on a good footballing team, Heworth, against whom we managed a remarkable 2 – 2 scoreline two weeks ago on their ground. The pitch was very sticky with some puddles in the penalty area at the end nearer the changing rooms, which always meant that what football could be played, would be at the other end, and that, by and large, proved to be the way the game panned out.

Matty H was a last day withdrawal through illness; so we started with Jamie up front by himself and adopted a 4 – 1 – 4 – 1 formation, with the Hitman playing in front of our back four to prevent what happened a fortnight ago, which was Heworth piling through at will (and Will wasn’t happy with that either!) And it certainly worked, with Heworth showing little of their attacking prowess that they had formerly displayed against us.

However, we did give them too long on the ball and this allowed their midfield playmaker, their number 11, to put in some superb diagonal balls, which their speedy number 13 capitalised on twice, with him going in on Michael, who is proving to be a truly first class week in, week out keeper for us, as he denied their player each time, the first being by Michael standing big and blocking the shot, the second time, a marvellous tip round the post. Both efforts kept us in the game and we duly took advantage, when Richie powered a superb cross come shot from a free kick and there was Kevin, ventolin inhalers in both hands, to head into the net unchallenged at the back post. Before this Chrissie Whitehead suffered a nose-bleed, when he actually crossed the halfway line into the Heworth half.

We could have gone further ahead, when Jamie powered a shot, which actually appeared to hit the netting on the underside of the bar, but the ref waved away our appeals. Jamie then bulleted a header, which would have surely been a goal, but for Will, charitable as ever, who decided to block it for Heworth: altruism and unselfishness at its best!! Take a bow, Will!

Half time arrived and we were now comfortably in charge of the game and we now had the better half of the pitch in which to play, and that is what we did on several occasions, putting together good, passing moves, which lead to two penalties and two clear chances on goal. Richie slotted home the first penalty to give us a well deserved, and apparently at the time, a match winning two nil lead. But there’s that 2 – 0 dangerous lead again. We defended a hopeful ball into our box very poorly and Heworth scored a goal totally against the run of the game. Surely, this wasn’t going to be the game of two weeks ago in reverse, with Heworth coming back to draw the game 2 – 2?

Well, we tried our hardest to make it so with some fresh air clearances and frantic play on occasion. In between both Matty B and Wayne had wonderful opportunities to increase our lead and then after some neat football, we were awarded our second penalty of the day. Richie, now affected by “Will Disorder”, now to be abbreviated to WD, hit the ball off the outside of the post. With ten minutes still to go, it made for an interesting last session. If we get another 38 WDs between now and the end of the season, we will be officially WD40: a well oiled team!

This was a good win and everyone contributed to the success. Chris and Will (when he decides which team he’s playing for!) had their best games for us in a long time, Jinx was excellent and the Hitman ran his legs into the ground. Tiger is improving every game and giving us options we have not had all season.

What Have We Learnt:

We are relying on Michael too often to bail us out (but thanks Michael for doing so).
We still need to up the physical side of our game – that’s not being dirty, just more aggressive, as was typified by Chris Whitehead during this match.
Our passing needs to be more precise; we too often give the ball away carelessly.
We are now very much living the cliché: taking each game one at a time. And it’s a cliché, because it is an absolute truism.

Quote of the Week:

“You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.” - Michael Jordan (I think he might’ve played minor league basketball in the U S of A one time!)