Report by Matt Eagles:
A new look Club AZ with only one player in the starting eleven from the previous season beat Mary Dendy 3-1 at Great Warford. They more than matched their experienced opponents out passing them and looking a yard quicker when the ball ran free. After missing a host of chances AZ finally took the lead six minutes before half time when Chris Wearing raced onto a through ball from Callum Loftus. His curling shot was palmed onto the inside of the post by Dendy keeper Mat Robinson but still crept in to give AZ a narrow advantage going into half time. Dendy’s first and only shot in anger came on the half hour but Paul Richardson dragged the ball wide of goal.
Dendy brought on their joint top scorer from last season Ryan Fallon in the second half and his physical presence gave the AZ defence plenty to think about and it was he who got Dendy back in the game at 1-1 after a terrible goal kick from keeper Lee Smith went straight to Richardson on the edge of the area who then unselfishly squared the ball to Fallon who finished with aplomb. Dendy played much better in the second half but fitness told and two goals in the final ten minutes gave AZ a deserved victory. Firstly Mat Nee received the ball on the edge of the penalty area from Alex Platt and turned to hit a low shot past Robinson to make it 2-1 and then four minutes later Rob Thorpe thundered in a header from Scott Meszaros’s cross to make it 3-1 .
The score line could have been very different had AZ taken all their chances and had Dendy keeper Mat Robinson not been in such mercurial form but Dendy played some neat football at times and should try and build on the positives rather than dwell on the loss of three points.
Report by David Vickers:
Sunny saturday and DENDY played their first game of the new season. Its always hard to judge how the season will go after the first game of the season. Time will tell if todays standard was high or two of the poor teams played today. Last season CLUB AZ were the best footballing team i saw play Dendy. Today again they were fit and passed the ball well making it a hard aft...ernoon for a decent Dendy team even without two star players Steve and Matt. A turn out of 18 was good for Dendy but causes troubles of its own having to let people down. The game was tight but in the end the team who passed it better over 90 mins and were fitter deserved the win. Their were good signs so hopefully playing together and getting fitter they will compete in what i expect to be a good standard league. Ryan scored Dendy's goal. Donkey beating his dad was Dan for getting megged twice. Man of the match was keeper Matt showing how hard it is to be a gola keeper one minute your a donkey next week you can be man of the match.
