Warley went to Gornal Colts on the back of a superb drawing performance at Brierley Hagley Celtic last week. Gornal in contrast had lost only one in six. Coach Matt was without Colm in goal replacing him with Anil and gave a debut to Dan Willetts pairing him up front with Sam S. It was an inspired choice as the two were constantly fed from the midfield to produce wave after wave of attacking threats. Gornal had their impressive goalkeeper to thank who was outstanding throughout and produced some stunning saves, the best at full stretch to palm a terrific shot away from the impressive Dan W.
In the second half Warley continued to master the midfield and provide width on both sides with the attackers running into the channels and creating havoc in the Gornal defence. Chance after chance followed with Junior, Dan W. and Sam S. all coming close but amazingly it was Gornal who produced first blood with a rare attack in the 56th minute. Starting on the left and finished with a low shot from the right sneaking its way past Anil in the Warley goal. Warley, to their credit, were soon firing level. Forging ahead from the kick off the ball made its way to the left with Junior floating the ball into the box to an unmarked Sam S. who casually rippled the net with a fine strike in the 58th minute. Warley continued to press ahead and a series of corners produced another set of chances but with a resilient Gornal defence led by superb goalkeeping it was a case of shared spoils for both teams and yet another impressive team performance from the Warley boys without just reward. Final score 1-1.
Managers Comments:
What a good performance from all of the boys. For the team to play so well and be so disappointed with only getting a point away to a well organized Gornal Team speaks volumes for their attitude. It was great to see some of the training drills working in match action. In terms of effort and application, I couldn’t have asked for much more from the boys and they certainly did all that they could to win the game, stopped only by some great goalkeeping and great defending (we could learn a thing or two with the way some of the Gornal Players put their bodies in the way). Next up we welcome Phoenix to City Road. With the same attitude and application I’m certain they boys can come up trumps against a very good Phoenix side. With summer holidays galore, August is always a difficult period as we always have limited availability for training & pre-season friendlies. We are now looking settled as a team and improving all the time, our next 3 points are just round the corner…keep up the good work boys, gaffer.
