Another tough game against 6th placed Burton Inter who had only lost once this season. The pitch was very heavy today and the Wolves opted to play the first half up hill.
Burton started strongly, winning a corner in the opening minutes and Cole was forced to make a good diving save. From another Burton attack Tom cleared well up field to Dylan who put in a great cross which Jacob couldn’t quite get to.
The Wolves then took the lead after 4 minutes. Nathan played the ball out of defence to Jacob who quickly passed to Ollie on the left of the Burton box. Ollie played a lovely quick pass for Dylan to run onto and he made no mistake in finding the back of the net. A great team goal with quick, one touch passing into space: 1-0
Two minutes later Ollie got on the score sheet, following in a Dylan shot that the Burton keeper couldn’t hold on to: 2-0
Burton were now defending the midfield and the Wolves were struggling to get passes through to the forwards but Sam had a shot go over the bar from an Ollie corner and Dylan had one go wide.
Burton kept up the pressure and won a penalty after a handball from a corner. Cole made himself big and saved brilliantly from the spot kick.
Half time: 2-0
Burton had the best of the early exchanges in the 2nd half. Their Number 7 had some great skills and was causing us problems in midfield and Cole again made a brilliant save from a Burton attack.
Dylan got in a few good crosses but Burton defended well and kept out a Jacob shot before Ollie put one just wide. William was strong in defence and Sam and Tom were playing some lovely passes in midfield. Our third goal came from a great shot from Dylan into the top corner midway through the half: 3-0
Dylan had a free kick blocked after Charlie was brought down in the Burton half and both Jacob and Charlie had chances to add to the score.
In the final few minutes Jacob won the ball out wide and played a beauty of a pass into the box as Dylan and Charlie raced into the area. Charlie got there first and his powerful shot gave the Burton keeper no chance: 4-0
Nathan, William and Tom needed to make some good tackles as Burton desperately tried to get a consolation but the ref blew the final whistle for our third clean sheet in a row.
Final score: 4-0
This was a very strange game. At times the passing was fantastic and at other times the same players just blindly kicked possession to Burton. Two of the goals were created by some beautiful one touch passes but several chances went begging as players chose to shoot when others were in better positions. We need to sort this out as the pitches will be too heavy for the boys to keep running for 40 minutes and we need to make the ball do the work. The midfield was absent at times today as well, and better teams will punish us if we give away that much space. The defence was superb again and some of the distribution was top class. Cole again had a faultless game and the penalty save was the icing on the cake.
