Wilmott Cup
Round 1
Westfield Reserves 5 Meadow Rangers Reserves 3
Saturday, 14 January 2006
Meadow visited Westfield and despite Westfield missing a hatful of chances they really pushed Westfield all the way and probably gave them one of their toughest games this season so far.
Westfield began the game well and looked the livelier of the 2 sides but despite creating the better chances the ball never really fell kindly for them in the opening 10mins and memories of the previous weeks match against Stoke came flooding back with chances being missed.
Westfield were playing well with Avis, Lake, Cook and Reeves in the midfield winning the lions share of possession and with Longdon and West- Gaul looking lively upfront Westfield looked in control but against the run of play a break from Meadow resulted in their quick center forward finishing well after a speculative through- ball.
Westfield were rocked by this setback but continued playing some decent football and despite West- Gaul hitting the post twice and then missing ?sitter of the season? the equalizer was soon to follow when after a goalmouth scramble Avis volleyed the ball home.
5 mins later and Westfield then took the lead after a great through ball from Sketch found West-Gaul who neatly finished into the corner of the net. Westfield continued to press with Reeves and Lake involved in a lot of the chance making but the ball wouldn?t go in and Westfield were getting frustrated.
With 35 mins gone a corner from Avis was superbly met by Sketch with a powerful header and the ball flew into the net giving Westfield a welcome 2 goal cushion. Longdon was then forced off for Westfield and Lines came on to replace him in midfield and some slight re-organising was done by Westfield.
Right on half-time Meadow forced a free-kick and from it the ball deceived Guy in the Westfield goal and Meadow were back in the match at only 3-2 down at half time.
The 2nd half began with both sides working hard trying to shut each other down with Meadow making some strong tackles determined not to let Westfield have things their own way and they were beginning to make a real game of it and Westfields back four of Sketch, Crocker, Rawlings and Latchem were having to work hard to keep Meadow out.
On the hour mark West-Gaul broke free from Meadows off-side trap and with only the keeper to beat he kept his cool and slotted home giving Westfield a 4-2 lead and a bit of breathing space.
With Westfield leading 4-2 a lot of sides would have given up but to be fair to Meadow they really went for broke and upped their game again and with Westfield missing chances to really wrap the match up Meadow got the goal they had threatened when a quickly taken corner caught Westfield asleep and their forward finished well giving Guy no chance.
Meadow now spurned on by their 1st team supporting on the sidelines were really motivated and Westfield threw on the experienced Brooks to calm things down and put Cook back in defence to replace the injured Latchem. These changes seemed to have the desired effect and despite all of Meadows ?huffing and puffing? it was Westfield who had the final word when in the 80th minute West-Gaul crossed for J Lake to finish well at the near post making the score 5-3 to Westfield and then with 5 mins left to play everybody who thought they had witnessed ?miss of the season? earlier in the game watched Avis take that honour away from West-Gaul when he somehow missed from 2yds with the goal at his mercy.
With 2 mins to go Westfield also introduced Neville Rhymer for his 1st ever game in a Westfield shirt much to the delight of all the Westfield followers who hope there will be plenty more to follow now he has got his first ever 2 mins under his belt.
MOM :Rob Reeves
Neil Cradock |
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