Last season's champions Western Speke where the visitors to The Dockers for our 1st home game of the new campaign, and as expected were up for the battle from the first whistle. Wearing our brand new black & red kit for the first time we got off to the perfect start when after just 4 minutes Kieran Dolan played in Wesley Davies who let fly with a superb shot which nestled into the bottom corner. Speke began to settle not long after the goal, their number 7 looked a threat going forward and they managed to have a number of shots on goal all of which were dealt with comfortably by Phil Founds. Paul Langley playing for the first time since the mid 90's without his lucky footy undies had Speke's right back run ragged on a number of occasions and if we were going to get a 2nd it was looking more likely it would come from his pinpoint crossing into the box. The front pairing of Judge & Geordeson were at times left frustrated by the lack of service into them but both led the line well and pressed the Speke defence as we went in search of a much needed second goal. The breakthrough finally came just 4 minutes before the break when a Wesley Davies corner struck the number 4 on James Gregory's back and crept in past the keeper it was a great time for us to double our lead, half time (2-0).
Ian Jordan who put a good shift in on the right wing in the 1st half was replaced at half time by John Davies who was again rewarded for his hard work put in over the summer. Speke began to up the tempo as they looked at getting back into the game but Gregory & James Davies were solid at the back breaking up every attack with resolute defending. Captain Kieran Dolan was given one of them Gordon Ramsey bookings when referee Paul Mitchell showed him the yellow card for using "The F word", it was a controversial decision as he blew up when a Speke forward looked to have been played in with a great ball over the top. The decision appeared to fire our skipper up who was winning the tussle in midfield and very nearly got himself on the score-sheet when he hit a stunning half volley from outside the box which just missed the top corner by inches
Emmerson Brough came on for striker Dean Judge on the hour mark but had to be replaced by Tony Cosgrove after an ankle injury forced him off which meant we had our very own Jimmy Carter. Speke continued to threaten but we defended excellently as a unit and could very easily have got a third goal on the break with the best chance coming yet again from a Langley cross which needed only the slightest touch from John Davies. It was a hard fought victory which has moved us up to 3rd in the table and meant we had kept a clean sheet yet again, at this rate maybe those so called lucky undies can finally be left at home on a regular basis.
Man of the match: James Gregory, solid at the back with another commanding performance and off the mark for the season
Subs not used: Thomas Friday, Neil Hunter
Next up: 25/9/10 Vale Madrid FC (a) 2:30pm kick off
