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Euxton Villa v
Eccleston & Heskin
11am K.O. 17th
September 2006
A beautiful morning
welcomed the players & entourage to the Draper Avenue
ground. Villa fresh from defeat against Ladybridge,
Eccleston fresh from victory against Charnock. The teams
greeted old friends.
1st Half
Eccleston started the
brighter and seemed much more determined to take the game to
Villa and this seemed to shock the Villa. Eccleston made
very good use of the bouncing ball chasing it downhill.
Villa were lucky not to concede a penalty on 3mins when Will
brought down one of the aforementioned chasing attackers.
Although not firing on all four the Villa seemed to balance
the play off and a scrappy, kick & punt game ensued.
Frustration was to become the word for the day.
After 10mins the Villa
seemed to start finding the wing! (It would be another 5mins
before the right wing was found). This wasn’t exploited and
it was left to Greg to pounce on a long ball and with his
now trademark strength took the opportunity well on the 13th
minute. 0-1
It was 17mins in when the
first of few corners was awarded to Villa. Frustration
resumed. Then on 23mins from the Eccleston keepers clearance
the ball was allowed to bounce (again) and as it went over
the heads of the midfield (again) a sharp thinking Eccleston
forward ran on and delivered a Beckham like shot from the
half way line that almost seemed destined to beat Will on
the bounce. And it did.1-1.
The half time whistle
blew…….thankfully!
Half Time
The team had it’s head
down as the management summarised their feelings.
After an unusually short
break the teams resumed the battle unchanged.
2nd Half
Much of the same really,
effort was there but no thought. Eccleston battled very well
and deserved to be on top of the game. A couple of chances
came & went but without the passing that Villa are capable
of nothing was being created so it was left to chance, Greg
picked up the ball on 7mins and let rip a shot that demanded
an excellent save from the Eccleston keeper. Villa had a
couple of fruitless free kicks in front of goal and so it
seemed almost predictable when Eccleston broke yet again and
scored on 10mins. Alex had once again kept them at bay for
the most part.
On 14mins Tom G & Max
came off to be replaced by Jamie M (+ new boots) & Rob. On
15mins Jamie & Ryan M came off & Sam & Smithy went on.
The game was still
scrappy but slowly & surely the Villa took the game to
Eccleston forcing the keeper to make a number of good saves,
very good hands under pressure had kept Eccleston in front.
Eccleston had played the offside well throughout the game,
Villa hadn’t, Greg beat it on 28mins & ran onto a through
ball to score. 2-2.
At his point the referee
had to explain to the linesman why he had correctly over
ruled the flag. At this point the linesman placed his flag
on the floor & demonstrated a marching stance to the ref.
The referee pointed this out and seemed to write something
in his book …could have been a reminder to pick it up
afterwards. There followed plenty of finger wagging and
sadly some of the crowd joined in and as happens in life the
Eccleston boys followed the example set and one or two may
have got themselves in a bit of bother. Shame because they
had shone on the field of play. The referee clearly annoyed
by what had gone on blew the restart and then blew to end
the game dead on 30mins and on a sour note.
Full Time
You are very good WHEN
you keep it simple ,spread the play and don’t panic.
First to the ball, head
the ball forward, don’t wait for the bounce, play to the
wings, release early, play the pass in front of the runners
…all basic stuff we know you can do. You are good.
Roll on the next game to
give you the opportunity to shine again as today, like the
weather, it all got a bit dull & drizzly.
It was a fine rain …the
kind that wets you through...
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