Match number: 2503Following last week’s league win Weysiders reserves were in confident mood going into this week’s league match against lowly Shalford Social Reserves, who have yet to put any points on the board. Unfortunately, like every other game so far this season, the availability of players has proved difficult for the management and this week proved more difficult than most. With only 13 players available on Friday evening, fortunately the Weysiders first team had a surplus of players, with Freddy “play the easy ball” Richards being released to play with the Reserves.
With Captain Jack Shaw unavailable, there was yet again a new centre-half pairing of manager Mark Stephen and Mark Sydorin playing alongside each other. Also there was a new central midfield pairing of Mike “Hollywood Ball” McDonnell along side Tom Clarke, whilst in goal Nick “now hopefully back from injury” Burt agreed to take the gloves and play in goal.
The Reserves all arrived nice and early so there was plenty of time for everyone to warm up correctly and hopefully start the game with a gallop. Despite this the Reserves really failed to play with any real cohesion during the game, despite having the vast majority of the possession. Too many times the Weysiders players made the wrong decision and too often passed the ball behind their intended target. The only real highlight of the first half - apart from Freddy “play the easy ball” Richards falling over when the ball was nowhere near him - was Gino Raccuglia’s rocket of a volley from a Weysiders corner, that almost broke the net, midway through the first half to give the Weysiders a 1-0 lead.
The second half again saw Weysiders have plenty of possession, but with very little penetration in the final third, and despite the opposition not being great, Weysiders failed on a number of occasions to make the keeper work, as chance after easy chance went begging.
As the match entered the final few minutes, Shalford finally got behind the Weysiders defence, and with their striker just about to pull the trigger, Mark Sydorin made a match-saving tackle, to keep them out. The match finally finished 1-0 to Weysiders.
Man of the Match: Mark Sydorin, for a good overall performance in central defence. |
