Match Report by Crozier:
Boots Wednesday succumbed to a further defeat on a sunny Sunday morning to increase their relegation worries. After Boots had taken the lead, a debatable penalty and a strong second half by Crown Inn (Beeston) saw them run out 4 – 1 winners.
Following a week off to celebrate the Manager’s Wedding, it was back to business for Boots but a thin squad gave the stand-in management duo of Brett and Subo a difficult choice, and saw some players featuring in very un-familiar positions as well as some returning faces from long term injuries/ laziness! The team lined up (left to right) with Phil in goal, Defence: Croz, Subo, Brett, Rich, Midfield: Griff, Sicky, Rowan, Si, Bally and Forward: Luke
There were no clear-cut chances at either end until Boots took a lead from a corner. Griff curled a delightful ball into the box and SuBo met the cross superbly to power it in the net!
After that Crown Inn had the better of the first half controlling most of the possession and leaving Griff, Bally and Luke to feed off scraps. These 3 did combine in a rare attack forward enabling Bally to have a chance but he blasted over from the edge of the area. Despite the pressure the defence marshalled the opposition well, Rich putting in strong tackles in an unfamiliar role and Brett and Subo dealing with any long balls. When the defence was breached they found Phil in inspired form making 3 very good saves. It looked like Boots would close out the first half in the lead, but a dubious penalty decision changed all that. Subo initially made a diving tackle but the ball rolled to their midfielder, who struck a shot which Subo whilst still on the floor attempted to block. The ball may have struck his hand but he knew little about it. Not one player of the opposition called for a penalty, in fact when the referee blew the opposition started to give abuse to Kieran (the linesman) believing he had given offside! As it was, a penalty was given and duly dispatched to level the scores just before half time. To make matters worse Boots almost immediately went down the other end and had a handball shout of their own for a penalty, but this time the ref was unmoved.
The second half saw Si, Sicky and Rowan continue to battle in the middle and run themselves silly trying to get possession and give Boots a foothold. The game was a pretty even pegging when Crown Inn took the lead; a powerful turn and shot from their stocky centre forward beating Phil down low and they expanded their lead from a corner, a headed chance bouncing away from Crozier on the post. Legs were heavy in the second half so fresh pairs were bought on with Kieran replacing Si and Frumpy replacing Griff, but still Boots were unable to make any clear cut chances, before the game was finally sealed when Crown Inn caught Boots on the break and out of position and the striker was left one-on-one to finish.
The best chance of the second half for Boots was very late on, a crossfield pass by Subo found Rich bombing down the right and his cross was met by Bally but he couldn’t direct it goalwards.
So another loss, but there were promising elements, when we kept the ball on the deck and passed it we caused a few issues, we looked a constant threat from set pieces and in the first half we defended well as a team, and it was a cruel decision that caught us out. In the second half however we created very few chances and they were the better team, as tired legs took over, Luke became an isolated figure and we didn’t support him. Throughout the whole game we didn’t really control possession and build any attacks and long periods without the ball eventually told.
Phil received the Man of the Match Award after making some good saves and he could do very little about their goals.
