Men's 3rd's Vs South Nott's 3rd's, 09/02/2008

This week Wilsthorpe College proved to be a happy stomping ground for Derby Asterdale as the Men's 3rd team continued the theme set by the Ladies second team by winning convincingly 3-1. Despite an unplanned 2 week break following the cancellation of last week’s game, the men's 3rd team started the game strongly.

Following the last game against Barton where we re-introduced the 3-4-3 format, the format proved dividends as Derby created several chances early on and Chris Towner came close to scoring with a hit across the goal mouth that rebounded off the far post. Several minutes later Derby were awarded a short corner. A well worked routine saw Matt Bunker input the ball straight to Pete Chesney who immediately passed the ball to his right to Chris Towner. In an inspired act of misconception, Chris immediately passed the ball back to Pete for Pete to strike the ball into the bottom right of the goal and see Derby lead 1-0. Unfortunately for the rest of the half Derby started to lose possession of the ball too easily and started to give South Nott's plenty of Short Corner practice and allow South Nott's to level the score by half time.

In the second half Derby reclaimed the sparkle that it had played with in the opening 15 minutes of the first half by using more width and retaining the ball for longer periods. Continued pressure by Anthony Crooks on the left wing and Pat Chambers on the right started to open up opportunities. Chris Towner managed to miss the goal once more but was not going to be denied. Several minutes on, after beating the defence, Chris deftly side stepped the keeper and reversed the ball into the goal. However South Nott's were not dead and buried and continued to apply plenty of pressure. At times this even meant they managed to get a one on one with our keeper. However Webby was on top form and would not be denied a clean sheet in the second half. Fortunately for us South Nott's started to get careless as they pushed more men up the field in an attempt to score an equalizer. At this point John Mann ran the ball from right back up the wing and passed the ball into the D for Chris to score his second of the match.

With around 12 minutes remaining Pat Chambers had worked the ball into the D only to find the keeper waiting to slide tackle him from behind. Naturally the keeper was sent off on a yellow card and Derby were awarded a short corner. Either it was an act of kindness or Derby were too tired by this point, but the following short corner did not result in a goal. Unfortunately for Derby, with 8 minutes remaining, John Mann managed to twist his ankle and both teams were down to 10 men. As the South Nott’s keeper was called back on Derby dug deep to keep it’s lead and end the game 3-1 winners in a hard but exciting game.

Man of the match was a difficult one to pick this week as all of the team had played so well. Pete Chesney and Matt Bunker deserve plenty of credit for their excellent performance in midfield, and we would have been lost without Webby. However in the vote in the pub after the game the choice came down to two players; Pat Chambers and Chris Towner. Pat not only showed his usual brilliant pace to beat the opposition but also made plenty of intelligent passing manoeuvres. But with two goals and an assist Chris took the outright vote for man of the match this week. Finally I would like to thank our two umpires Leigh Alcock and Nigel Spencer who put in a great performance today.

Good grief. I think you'll find john passed the ball to me, i took the ball forward and played a perfectly weighted, defence splitting pass to Towner to score the 2nd. No wonder i dont get the MOTM awards with your "selective reporting" Dont worry, im not bitter...

Pete,
Was the "perfectly weighted, defence splitting pass to Towner " a mis hit shot by any chance!!!

Pete,

Did I say you were not involved in the second goal?????

"Several minutes on, after beating the defence, Chris deftly side stepped the keeper and reversed the ball into the goal."

No mention of my stick wizardry there...

The only reason i can guess for my exclusion is that my feet and stick-work were so quick that i must have appeared as a blurr in Saturday's hazey heat...

No Leigh, it wasnt a shot, although i did try one from the halfway line in the 2nd half of the match, disallowed for some reason, dodgy umpires if you ask me

Dodgy umpires... I have you know that at least half my decisions were not a complete guess!!

Actually, that was one of the best matches in terms of umpiring that we've had all season! And no, despite the fact that Lee was umpiring, im not taking the pi$$!!! hehe

Yes the second goal came from my long pass to pete and then to chris to finish.

I pushed forward to put a cross into the D for Chris to slip the 3rd past the keeper.

Sadly not just a twisted ankle but damaged ligaments, out for several games now. So keep that right back warm for my glorious return chaps