The weather was overcast and a little blustery but dry. The pitch was very rough and uneven.
Hadcroft won the toss and defended the hill in the first half and could not have got off to a better start when a sweet move that started with David Chambers in his own half linking with Chris Smith and then Luke Smith saw Hadcroft off the mark on 4 minutes 0 – 1. What happened in the next 15 minutes can only be described as farcical, on 15 minutes a goal mouth scramble in the Hadcroft box eventually saw keeper Scott Newman clear his line only to hit the back of David Chambers and the ball fly back past him into the net 1 – 1. This boosted Wordsley and they kept coming forward winning a corner on 21 minutes. The corner was delivered with speed and height and cleared every player in the box flying into the top left hand corner of the net 2 – 1. Hadcroft now had to raise their game step forward MOM Chris Smith with the first of his 4 goal 4 minutes later 2 – 2. The goal of the game came on 35 minutes when David Chambers picked up the ball on the wide left took 2 touches looked up and drove the ball curving and dipping from 25 yards into the top right hand corner of the net 2 – 3. The hard working Julian Probyn collected a pine point pass bursting into the area on 38 minutes only to be up ended, step up Chris Smith who drove the ball hard past the wrong footed keeper into the net 2 – 4. Stalwart Sarvesh Tah had to be replaced by Chris Reade also on 38 minutes after aggravating a knee injury. Chris Smith scored his hat trick with the last kick of the first half 2 – 5.
HALF TIME 2 – 5
The second half started off as a scrappy affair with both teams not getting into any real rhythm and it took 15 minutes before a smart move by Hadcroft saw Chris Smith score his 4th 2 – 6. The never give up Julian Probyn chased down what seemed to be a lost cause on 66 minutes pull the ball back from the goal line by the corner look up and fire in a wicked low shot across the keeper and into the net 2 – 7. Wordsley pulled on back on 71 minutes when the Hadcroft defence failed to clear the ball and allowed Wordsley a simple goal 3 – 7. Hadcroft quickly increased the lead when a good team move saw Luke Smith show total composure and bury the ball into the net on 75 minutes 3 – 8. The 2 worst referring decisions came on 78 and 79 minutes on 78 minutes Hadcroft cleared the ball off the line only for the referee to award a goal standing near the half way line a ball the was obviously nowhere near even close to line let alone over it 4 – 8. Hadcroft kicked off the ball went back to David Chambers who made a run from in his own half linked with Chris Smith for a 1 – 2 just outside the box broke through the defenders and hit the ball at the keeper on 79 minutes who dropped it and recovered with the ball on the line the goal was awarded even thought it had not crossed the line 4 – 9. Richard Parsons replaced Andy Perry on 80 minutes. A deep kick from keeper Scott Newman saw Julian Probyn run onto the ball and flick head it past the keeper into the net on 89 minutes 4 – 10.
FULL TIME 4 – 10
Next Match Sunday 18th December KO 10.30 am again at Wordsley Park against Lloyds.
