After the 10-1 home defeat in March, we knew what to expect from Walesby. For most of the first half that was what we got. The wide pitch meant that we were stretched at the back and a ball through the middle after just 5 minutes led to a shot from the edge of the box and a 1-0 lead for the home team. We found ourselves under constant pressure, playing up the slope, but Walesby were overhitting far too many of their passes forward. One pass the forward did catch saw Adam come off his line and make a great tackle near the edge of the area. On 14 minutes, Walesby doubled their lead, a high cross bounced over our defence and goalie and was nodded into the open net.
3 minutes later and somewhat against the run of play, we pulled a goal back. Elliot took a throw-in and jack flicked it on to Ollie’s feet. He managed to dribble through the Walesby defence and after getting the ball stuck in his feet, he stuck it past the keeper. Walesby regained their two goal cushion on 24 minutes. A cross from their right wing went behind the defence. The centre forward reacted quickest and finished clinically. Another clinical finish four minutes later made it 4-1 the ball came over the top this time. The two Sams were brought on to tighten things up, Chiv at right back for Elliot and Graney in the middle for Ryan. That definitely improved things, Chiv’s physical play certainly quietened their left winger. On 36 minutes Graney had pushed up towards the centre circle to win a header but the ball was sent straight back over his head. The Walesby striker took advantage of the space and blasted in a fifth from the edge of the box. On the stroke of half-time, a free -kick for Walesby from wide on the left was lofted into the box. The wind, which gusted throughout the game, caught hold of the ball and made it difficult to judge. It bounced in no-man’s –land between Adam and the defence and into the net to give Walesby a 6-1 half-time lead.
The second half saw a better, stronger performance from Manor. We seemed to be settling down to the width of the pitch with Raffy and Ollie dropping deeper creating a six-man back line with Foxy and Dom sitting in the centre. We had the slope in our favour and the wind blowing across the pitch was more in our favour as well. Walesby were creating less chances, we were winning more tackles and were quicker to the ball. The slope however was causing us similar problems with us over hitting passes but a couple of efforts from Foxy and Moo brought saves from the home goalie. A long high ball forward by Chiv was fumbled backwards by the keeper but he managed to reach the ball a couple yards before it rolled into the net. With 72 minutes gone a Manor corner was swung in from the left by Cory, the keeper failed to hold on and Raffy nodded the ball in at the far post from just a yard out. From the kick-off, Walesby went straight up the other end and as Graney slid in to clear a cross/shot, the ball rebounded off his standing leg and into the net. Dom almost got us another goal when another high ball forward deceived the Walesby goalie. The ball bounced over him and came back off the top off the post. Final score then was 7-2 to Walesby. Before the game I said if we could score more than last time and let in less then I would be reasonably happy. The fact we actually drew the 2nd half of this game made me very proud. A great performance from everyone. Stand-out performances from Foxy and Dom, A game changing display from Chiv but for effort and amount of ground covered the Man of the Match went to Ollie.
