Boots swept aside a poor Brooks Villa team with their biggest win of the season so far. A slightly hungover Patto opened the scoring when Rowan cushioned a header into his path, and the first-time shot from the edge of the area bounced under the diving keeper. After some good pressing from the forwards, Paul managed to spread the ball out to Crozier on the left wing, who cut inside and scored with his RIGHT foot, the ball skidding off the surface and over the sprawling keeper. Boots continued to threaten their defence, and after chasing a beautifully weighted ball from Spencer, Patto’s shot was blocked and rolled out for a corner. Crozier stepped up and curled the set piece straight into the far side of the net, doubling his tally for the game (and season!) Despite the domination in front of goal, Boots still had to see off some pressure, and Brett, Spence and Fletch all saw off attacks with calm heads, while Man of the Match Phil made some acrobatic headers and strong challenges when required. Along with the defence, Simon and Paul won almost everything in the air, while Danny continued to frustrate the Brooks defence with some clever running. Boots eventually made if 4-0 before half-time when the unchallenged Rowan headed in Danny’s curling corner from the left, which the man on the line could do nothing about.
After half-time Boots began to keep the ball down and put together some lovely passing moves. Patto was unlucky not to latch on to an inch-perfect cross from Danny, before seeing his shot (from Rowan’s well-worked pull-back) blocked on the line. Phil and Paul also saw long-range efforts go narrowly wide, before Bally came on for Patto and Ian replaced Simon. Finally Boots got their fifth; Phil picked up the ball on half-way and calmly dribbled to the edge of the area unchallenged, before planting a nonchalant shot into the bottom left corner! Bally saw a chance saved on the line, before Brooks claimed a consolation goal when a optimistic ball evaded the defence and was poked in beyond Neil. Craig came on for his debut on the right wing after replacing Rowan, and scored in the dying minutes when Phil’s hopeful punt bounced behind the defence, and Craig beat the keeper to the ball for a simple header.
This week’s EMPAL Press Report (soon to be seen in the Balls Mania publication) appears to give the highest praise possible to Phil, and clearly the journalist couldn’t be bothered with Rowan’s surname either…!
“Boots Wednesday top scored in thumping and sending Brooks Villa to the bottom by 6-1. Crozier with two, assisted by Patterson, Ghandi, Staskiewwicz and McCaffrey.”
