It was a frustrating day at the office for Gavin Heard's men as Glasshouse held The Warden to a 2-2 draw at The Bill Shankly Playing Fields. The home side punished us after sloppy defending gifted them the opening goal after 7 minutes. Our passing and final ball into the final 3rd was very poor and Wesley Pitchford missed two clear cut chances which should have been converted. Anthony Moore who again started in place of Netran Dolan on the right was linking up well with John Marsh and he was instrumental in creating most of our opportunities to draw level with some excellent passing in to the front pairing of Pitchford & Judge. It was from his through ball on 32 minutes that Pitchford made ammends for his early misses and levelled the scoring with a powerful finish past the keeper. Paul Langley clipped the crossbar from a free kick and Moore nearly knocked the stuffing out the keeper with a powerful effort just before the interval. Half time (1-1)
Glasshouse were more Alehouse with their style of play which consisted of long balls up to the front two and long balls into the corners, the message at half time was to go more direct and try to work the keeper more ourselves. Phil Founds had an absolute nightmare when he was beaten from long range on 52 minutes as he appeared to loose his footing as the ball crept in past his near post and once again we were chasing the game. Just moments later Brian Kerwin made a positive run down the left and cut in to the box, he was blocked off by the full back and the referee pointed to the spot Brian hit the deck like a typical Friday night when he's spotted staggering out of The Casa (sorry Warden!). Captain Kieran Dolan made no mistake sending the keeper the wrong way to make it 2-2. From that moment on it was wave after wave of attack from us and in partucular Paul Langley who was turning the ginger hair on the Ronald McDonald right back's barnet a shade of grey with fear but we just couldn't find a way past the Glasshouse keeper. Marcel Anzani who was last seen scoring from a free kick in pre-season came on to make his debut in place of Wes Pitchford on 64 minutes and he used his experience and strength to hold the ball up well and bring others into the game with some clever lay off's, he almost made a hero of himself when Paul langley pulled back a great ball for him but he lashed the ball over the bar. Wesso Davies who was nursing a knock to the shin also had 2 very good chances but again failed to hit the target and time was rapidly running low for us to repeat last weeks events of grabbing a late winner. Gavin Heard's last throw of the dice was Ian "the 1 and only" Jordan with just 5 minutes remaining and only for him having what his dad described as a 50p for a head then he would have won it on 88 minutes when he raced into the box and headed over another brilliant ball in from Langley. Things could so easily have got worse when it the final minute James Davies drop kicked their number 7 in the box but luckily for us the referee was having none of it and we escaped with just having to defend a corner which was nearly headed in. It was to be the last piece of action as the whilstle was blown for the end of what was most definately 2 points dropped.
Man of the match: Paul Langley everything we created in the later stages came from his excellent wing play, Anthony Moore had a very good 1st half but struggled to carry that into the second period.
Subs not used: Neil Hunter, Shaun Kent, Arran Langley
