After over two months of waiting, Boots Wednesday finally got to play a league match in 2012, and were unlucky to come away empty-handed after worrying the league leaders, Queen’s Head, for long periods of a hotly contested match on a good playing surface. A late withdrawal from Ian forced Spence to adjust the team as Luke was dropped into central midfield with Chibbert and Simon, while Bally played ‘lone striker’ and Brett took left-back duties.
The first half was surprisingly even, and despite Queen’s Head frequently attempting to play in their quick forwards with diagonal balls, they never really threatened Phil’s goal as the defence saw off the danger, with Patto and SuBo both making crucial tackles and Hawrylak and Brett seeing away the threat with help from Rich and Griff. At the other end Bally, supported by Rich and Luke, frequently caused panic in the Queen’s final third, but the final shots could never be released. Queen’s Head eventually opened the scoring when Phil struggled to hold on to a high cross, and the dropped ball ran loose before being half-volleyed into the goal through a crowd of players. Despite this, Boots didn’t let their heads drop, and the bustling Chibbert and Simon began to link up well and bring in the wingers and forwards to work some chances: SuBo saw a header blocked on the line from Griff’s corner, Brett had a direct free-kick pushed away by the keeper’s knees, Bally smashed a volley straight at the keeper after Simon’s throw evaded 2 defenders, and Luke forced a scrabbling keeper to clear his lines after dropping an initial shot. Just before half time, Boots had their best chance of the half when a persistent Bally wriggled his way clear into the box, but was unfortunate to see his stabbed shot deflect off the keeper’s back and dribble towards goal before being cleared by a recovering defender.
As the hard surface took its toll, the space seemed to open up in the second half, and despite Boots putting the opposition defence under pressure down the wings (Ash replacing Griff on the left), Queen’s Head began to dominate the midfield and continue feeding weighted balls through to their forwards (although Phil was usually on hand to collect them all up). A second goal eventually came when a dangerous curling freekick was volleyed home at the back post, and although both Luke and Chibbert saw goal-bound shots blocked, and SuBo drifted a header wide (from Patto’s cross), the Queen’s Head keeper wasn’t really forced to make any saves. With the slender lead looking vulnerable, Boots continued to push forward (with Kieran replacing Bally) but lost their shape in the process, and after Phil had smothered several hopeful shots, Queen’s Head made the most of the space when their midfielder scored a wonderful individual goal, running through umpteen challenges before slipping the ball under Phil.
SuBo was once again given Man of the Match for another strong performance in defence, but the whole team worked well for each other (notably the partnership between Horlicks and Rich on the right) and we should begin to reap the rewards if we can keep it up in our upcoming games.
