Match number: 2494Weysiders reserves produced another strong performance to secure a 2-1 win against a highly fancied Byfleet team. Both teams arrived early for the game, which meant that there was time to run everyone through their positions and what was required. However, the Byfleet manager came out to the pitch with his very own white board on a tripod, so Weysiders knew they were going to be up against it.
During the pre-match team talk the Weysiders manager could only hold up an A4 scrap of paper showing the positions that he wanted his players maintain during the afternoon encounter. However, as with the previous week the Weysiders players took it all in and delivered in every way, with another classy performance.
The first twenty minutes was a cagey affair with Byfleet drawing a sharp reacting left-foot save from the Weysiders keeper Mark 'The Cat' Stephen. Central defenders 'Captain Jack' Shaw and Gary 'C U Jimmy' Paterson put in another commanding performance at the heart of the Weysiders defence. With 15 minutes to go to half-time, Weysiders started to push forward, and with the Byfleet defence on the back foot, chances started to appear. Tom Clarke was unfortunate to have his shot blocked on the edge of the area, but the ball fell nicely to Jim Norton who cracked a thunderbolt of a shot passed the Byfleet goalkeeper and into the roof of the net: 1-0 Reserves.
Byfleet were shell shocked - their manager and his white board had not prepared them for going behind. Things were to get worse for them, as just before half-time Chris '15 goals this season' Murch chased down a lost cause of a ball, that was going straight to the Byfleet keeper, however the Byfleet keeper, with one eye on Chris bearing down on him, spilled the ball directly to Murch, who poked home from close range: 2-0 Reserves, which is how it stayed until half-time.
The second half started at a frantic pace with Byfleet pushing for that elusive first goal which would bring them right back into the game, but with Captain Jack Shaw winning every ball in the air, Byfleet were becoming more and more frustrated. As Byfleet pushed forward, space began to open up at the back and Guy 'Yeti' Chapman missed a glorious opportunity to seal the win, when he failed to hit the target with a goal beckoning. This miss almost proved very costly as shortly afterwards Byfleet scored, with 10 nervous minutes remaining.
The Reserves needed to dig deep to secure the points, Byfleet continued to push forward for that second goal and only some very fine 'backs to the wall' defending from the whole Reserves team kept the home team out. With the minutes ticking by, the Byfleet winger put in a looping cross, which looked to be going into the top corner, but Reserves keeper Mark 'The Cat' Stephen threw himself to his left to tip the ball over for a corner, which the Reserves cleared to secure a hard fought win 2-1. |
