Willow Pond 6 - 0 The Victory Club
Steve Jackson again had hatch together a plan at a late stage as once again he was left struggling with a number of absentees which have blighted the Victory's campaign.
On the injury list were Dean Robinson (Achillies), Lee Skellend (Back) and they were joined by Graham Lamb (Knee). Whilst also absent were Jonny Lewis, Rob Timm and Adam Smith but they seemed to have no reason. This meant Davey White was deployed on the left hand side.
Four Victory old boys were in the opponents starting x1, John Davis, Tony Davis, Joe Sharpe and original Vics Skipper Ben Potter.
Carrying on from the previous game the Victory's spirit kept them competitive but on the quarter hour they conceded a long throw seemed to be sailing into the reliable Lewis Swan's arms but unfortunately he dropped the ball straight to the feet of a Willa attacker and he smashed the ball high into the net.
The Victory settled into the game and starting making some challenges but Swan made a good save from a long range strike on the half hour mark.
Just before half time the crucial moment from the Vics point of view occured, Ryan Fairweather won the ball on the half way line he laid it off to Simon Mountford who played it into Ben Stores whose moment of magic (Cruyff esq turn) put Mountford in the clear but his tame effort was hit straight at Davis who was already on the floor, but you didn't need to tell him that he should have scored.
Half Time
The second period started okay but disaster struck around the 55 minute mark as Hudson pass back to Swan was poorly dealt with and the keeper struck the ball straight to a Willow Pond player and he simply rounded the keeper to tap the ball in with the defence a little flat footed. Moments later it got worse as the Victory played a faulty offside trap and the Willow were in for their third. The fourth followed a corner was dealt with by the Victory but unfortunately a long range strike going wide hit Greg Davison and flew into the net past the helpless Swan.
It was soon five as the Victory gifted possesion to the Pond and they duely accepted the early christmas present and rammed home a shot.
Before the end of match there was just time for one more moment of embarrasment as Swan was nutmegged by former Vics player Ben Potter and the ball trickled over the line to end the scoring.
One final moment of controversy was when Fairweather danced round four players but his shot was saved by Davis, but he then spilt it and the Victory youngster accidently kicked his senior of 32 years in the head trying to follow up and Scott Hunter clipped the rebound in only to see it disallowed. So no consolation for the small Victory contigent.
At full time Jackson was quite clearly dissappointed with the result but had praise for the way his players never give up throughout this difficult period. He will be hoping the injuries clear up and some new recruits can be added as he hopes there will be better fortune in 2012.
