This week we travelled to Wigan for the first round of the cup competition, a little apprehensive that we were playing a team a couple of divisions above us in the league. Once the game started we quickly realised that we needn’t have had any concerns as we took the game to Wigan right from the first whistle.
The game started very well and was end to end for most of the match with some good shots coming in from both teams. The tackling was fierce at times and although fair for the majority of challenges, there were one or two wild ones, particularly from the opposition which at times could have caused serious damage to a player’s leg if contact had actually been made. To be fair to the opposition coaches they were very respectful of our players and reprimanded their own whenever called for.
Travis and Joseph started off well up front for us, with Trav showing great skill at times and narrowly missing a goal with a shot that rattled the cross bar and unfortunately came back out. Joe played with bundles of energy and was continually in the right place and the right time. He may have scored twice if he’d taken a little more time taking his shot, but his enthusiasm was outstanding.
Midfield started well with Jacob and Katie putting in some great runs and some excellent passes through to the strikers and some great battling, particularly from Katie who once again surprised the opposition with her strength. Jacob put in a few outstanding throw-ins and some good runs before making way for Ethan to finish off the half in the centre. From the second he was on the pitch he started to feed the ball around and put in some pin-point passes through the heart of the opposition.
Marc and Daniel started at the back for this match with Marc putting in his usual 110% effort and often showing Wigan a clean pair of heels. Dan showed why he got his starting place with some crunching but fair tackling and a good, solid performance. Tom came on for Joe and almost straight away made a nuisance of himself in front of the Wigan goal with a top cross from a corner and then Speedy Gonzalez legs to keep nicking the ball from them.
Wigan tackled hard and despite being a new team, showed that they’re certainly no pushover. What it didn’t tell you on their website is that most of their players, although being in a new team now, came down from their other A team, who had too many players and are in a higher division again. The Wigan keeper put in a good performance for a player who only joined their squad a couple of weeks ago and he denied us on a number of occasions during the match.
Jako, our own wonder goalie, showed on a number of occasions why we believe he is one of the best keepers in the Warrington league. He rarely put a foot wrong in the game and the one goal he did let in, was a very hard one to stop.
Thomas came on the pitch for Trav and made a few great runs forward with the ball, narrowly avoiding a vicious leg-breaking tackle with some nifty footwork, finishing with a decent effort on goal. He’s showing good confidence in dribbling forward with the ball in his new position and we can only expect him to get better still in this role.
Dom swapped with Daniel and proved to be a tower of strength at the back, stopping Wigan’s attackers on a number of occasions and pulling off a number of very hard but very fair challenges and taking a good few hard knocks himself but shrugged them off and just carrying on. A true and well deserved man of the match performance!
Ben came on in the second half and ran around like an energizer bunny, chasing every ball and trying to help out his team mates. His consistent pressure paid off when he managed to get a goal in which I think was assisted by Tom, in a mad scramble early in the second half.
Unfortunately, Wigan’s goal came from a particularly bad challenge on Dom, which from our standing point was a clear foul, but the ref disagreed as Dom appeared to be hacked down and left on the floor while they went on and scored. Thankfully the ref spotted one of their player perform a dive a little later in the half and awarded us a free-kick.
The game ended at 1-1 after normal time and we went into the dreaded penalty shoot out!
Once again we were able to progress in a cup match following penalties as each of the ones we did score, were taken very well and very powerfully. The Wigan manager commented in particular on the way that Tom took his penalty, which to be truthful, was an absolute beauty! Every one of our penalties was on target although their keeper did manage to save one, whilst Wigan’s were a mixed bag. Jako was unlucky not to stop the ones they did score as he went the right way each time and was very unlucky with one of them not to keep it out.
Final score Wigan 4 (1) : Sutton 5 (1)
We believe that we slightly had the upper hand and should really have won this game in normal time but we remain unbeaten in penalty shoot-outs, both of those we’ve taken part in also being against teams in higher divisions than us.
We felt that the substitutions worked better this week and that each player came on the pitch looking eager to get the ball. We still have a few things that we need to improve on but we believe that we are playing some exciting football and there is a great team spirit going on. Well done everyone, keep up the good work.
Thanks as ever to our fantastic parents whose support is invaluable.
