Beautiful sunshine and a dry pitch today. The first five minutes were battled out in midfield as Milan kicked downhill and the Wolves struggled to find their passing game. William Sam and Nathan were solid and kept Milan away from goal. Eventually Nathan played a great clearance to Jacob who quickly passed into Dylan behind the defence. Dylan teased the giant Milan GK before calmly slotting low into the left corner. 1-0
Straight from the restart Milan attacked but Cole came out bravely to save at the forward’s feet. From a long goal kick Ollie had a shot that Jacob tried to steer into the net but was saved. Dylan also had a shot saved soon afterwards.
Burton then had a good amount of possession and William made two great tackles after closing down quickly and the communication between Cole and the defence was much better today. Burton did manage a shot that beat Cole but Jacob cleared off the line with his knee! Dylan then picked up the ball and raced down the wing putting in a great cross to Jacob in the penalty area, however the shot hit Charlie who had also got into the box, and went wide.
Tom, Nathan and Sam were now bossing the midfield and there was some great passing and movement involving Charlie, Jacob and Ollie. There were a few chances created but the Milan keeper, who filled the goal with his size, was only going to beaten by well placed low shots.
Our second goal came from a quick, long throw from Tom into the space behind the defence, Dylan was first to the ball and kept his shot low into the corner. 2-0
Four minutes later and Charlie got a third for the Wolves following a great run up the left by Dylan. The keeper came out for the cross but missed it and Charlie tapped in after getting into a great position in the box. 3-0
Milan had been passing the ball had one more attack just before half time but Cole saved well.
Half – Time 3-0
Three minutes into the second half and Dylan got his hat trick. There was some great pressure from the Wolves with super passing between Sam, Jacob and Ollie. Once again Dylan got behind the defence from a quick Ollie pass and coolly placed the ball out of the GK’s reach. 4-0
Minutes later Jacob was brought down on the edge of the penalty area but Dylan’s free kick went just wide.
Milan upped the pace now and were testing our defence with some good breaks and passing but William, Tom, Sam and Nathan were winning most of the battles. Cole made a couple of great saves; one low shot to the corner and another lobbed effort which he jumped well to reach. Cole’s distribution was on top form today and together with the boys in defence, who closed down really well whenever Milan got the ball in space, I couldn’t see Milan scoring against us.
Despite having the majority of possession and playing really well out of defence and in midfield there were very few chances for the Wolves to add to the score. The final ball was either too late, too hard or too soft. Jacob had a shot straight at the GK and Ollie just lost out on a race for the ball as the massive Milan GK came racing off his line. The best chance came from a corner just on the final whistle but both Tom and Jacob went for the same ball and it flew just wide.
Final score: 4-0
The whole team totally deserved the clean sheet today after giving away some soft goals in the last few matches. We had asked them to be a bit more aggressive and to close down quickly which they did brilliantly today. Also both the communication and distribution from the back was just what we had been training to achieve over recent weeks.
It probably felt like we should have scored more goals however Milan have only conceded more than 3 goals in one other game all season (Warriors Swords) and their GK had a great second half.
Back to our best now the pitches are drying up. Well done everybody today, a great team performance.
