On a crisp January morning, an alert Boots Wednesday began 2011 with a resounding home victory over struggling Ardley Athletic. Displaying some composed, crisp and simple passing, Man of the Match SuBo and Sicky dominated midfield for most of the match, linking up well with Pete and Griff on the wings and Rowan and Danny up front. After creating a number of half-chances, with Brett and Crozier both hitting the crossbar and Danny glancing a Sicky free-kick fractionally wide, it was only a matter of time before the Ardley defence was breached, and following excellent link-up play between Pete and Danny down the right, a goalmouth scramble ensued which allowed a grounded SuBo to swivel on his pelvis and set up Rowan for a simple tap-in at the far post. Despite being offside about one million times, Danny and Rowan both proved a real nuisance for the opposition with their closing down and movement, and this persistent play allowed Danny to add a second after tackling a hesitant defender and rushing clear down the centre to finish coolly into the bottom right corner. Another good passage of passing, this time down the left between SuBo, Pete and Griff, permitted Danny to cut inside and roll a ball into the path of the advancing Sicky, who finished brilliantly around the keeper into the roof of the net with his left foot to make it 3-0. Boots could and should have scored more before half time, but Danny shot straight at the keeper when one-on-one and Fletch and SuBo couldn’t quite latch onto Pete’s corners. At the other end the closest Ardley came to a goal was when Hawrylick’s 40 yard clearance curled perilously close to the spectating Simon’s top right corner, but otherwise Brett and Fletch cleared their lines confidently, allowing Hawrylak and Crozier to simply back-up their wingers.
Ardley shuffled their formation at the start of the second half and began to see more of the ball as the Boots defence and midfield were forced to sit deeper. Ardley grabbed a goal back when a corner was allowed to drop into the six yard box and the headed ball ricocheted into the net off Toobs’ armband. Bally replaced Griffles, moving up front with Rowan shuffling to the left wing, but Boots still struggled to keep possession and eventually Ardley added a second when their striker muscled his way into the box and shot early to beat Simon with a smart finish. Stand-in manager Patto took action and reshuffled Boots to a 4-5-1 in an attempt to regain control of midfield, with Dave ‘Elite’ Eite replacing Danny on the right wing, and Pete moving into the centre. The change immediately worked and a fantastic headed clearance from SuBo allowed Pete to thread Elite down the right with a weighted ball, and with his first touch of the game he squared the ball into the path of Bally who tucked away his fourth league goal of the season from 6 yards. Rowan and Bally missed fine chances to extend the lead as Boots took control of midfield once again, counter-attacking at will with Elite and Pete combining particularly well against the tiring defenders (although Simon was still required to hold some low shots as Ardley continued to attack). With ten minutes remaining Patto brought himself on for an exhausted Rowan, and managed to score with his first touch of the game as Crozier’s curling corner was glanced in off the far post with a resounding thunk. There was some controversy over the goal as Bally’s ruthless instincts helped him aid the ball into the net from close range, but Crozier (amongst others) was utterly convinced that Patto’s header had already crossed the line before he poked it in! A quick counter-attack from an Ardley throw allowed Pete to take on the one remaining defender and set Patto clear down the left wing, who grabbed his second of the match with a finish that just slipped over the fingertips of the advancing keeper! Having scored, it then appeared that Rowan’s shout of ‘MAN ON!’ moments before had been a hilarious ruse, as the only other people in the half were Brett, Fletch and Pete, who looked rather glum having expected a simple squared ball – you can thank Rowan for that one!
Despite the second half blip, the overall performance was excellent from everyone, and as stand-in manager Patto was thoroughly impressed with the spirit and effort put in by everyone, including the substitutes who all helped secure the win with the introduction of their fresh(er) legs!
