A lovely warm day and the Wolves were back up to full strength for the first time this season.
The Wolves kicked off uphill in the first half but Corby dominated the early exchanges with a shot just over the bar in the first minute and then Cole was bravely out to save with his feet. Minutes later and Corby hit the post with another shot and then again straight after Cole made another good save.
Gradually the Wolves’ defence picked up the pace and Tom, William and Nathan made some good tackles and clearances upfield. Ollie had a shot saved following some good work between Dylan and Jacob. Dylan got in a couple of crosses but these were either just too hard or behind Ollie and Jacob as they rushed into the box.
Nathan was very strong at the back today and, with Ollie and Dylan, started moving the ball about better in midfield. Dylan had a long range effort go over the bar and then picked out Jacob whose shot was saved.
In the last minute the Wolves got a great team goal. Cole passed to Ollie out wide on the left. Ollie made a quick pass to Dylan who threaded the ball through to Jacob to tap home: 1-0.
Just on half time Dylan had a free kick midway in the Corby half but the shot was over the bar.
Half-Time: 1-0
The Wolves started the second half strongly and had a couple of early corners; one from Dylan nearly curled straight in at the back post but was just kept out by the keeper. Dylan hit the post from a good pass from Jacob and had another shot from long range saved really well.
Corby kept up the pressure and Cole made another couple of good saves. William was tackling hard and distributing the ball up field into space. Sam shored up the midfield battling hard for every ball and linked up well with Dylan and Jacob.
Corby almost scored from a weak clearance and as the Wolves didn’t close down, the Corby player had loads of time for his shot which Cole did well to gather after it hit the post.
Ollie, Jacob, Sam and Dylan started passing the ball around nicely as the game wore on. With five minutes to go William played a great long ball to Ollie who won a corner on the right. The goalie gathered the ball but he kicked the ball straight to Jacob who lobbed it back over his head for the Wolves’ second: 2-0.
Corby attacked from the restart and Cole, who had another fantastic game, saved really well, diving to his right and just on the final whistle Jacob had a headed shot saved acrobatically by the Corby keeper.
Final score: 2-0
They say that good teams can win when they play badly and although there were some very good performances from Cole and Nathan today, we are making the sort of mistakes which will be punished by better teams. We need to close down much more quickly when we make poor clearances and give away possession from our penalty area and we need to work harder on holding our positions, especially in midfield. When we pass the ball quickly and do the simple things well, the boys look awesome as shown by the first goal today.
