Mens 3s vs Deeside Ramblers 4

Following a week of turmoil in the lower half of the men’s section of the club, the Men’s 3s turned up to an early start looking to kick-start their season. They started solidly against a strong and experienced Ramblers side who had started the season with a win, a draw and a loss.

Wilmslow were compact and solid in defence and tried to keep Ramblers at “arm’s length” to build some confidence. After five to ten minutes Wilmslow pressured the opposition defence causing a turnover. After some bouncing around in the D the ball was turned-in. However, celebrations were short lived as the umpires been drawn to an offence in the build-up.

This passage of play gave Wilmslow a much-needed confidence boost, but as the first half drew on, they were being pushed further and further back. There were several attacks thwarted through good solid defending by the likes of John Lowe and Max Nicholls, whilst the midfield of Max Groves, Jim Grosvenor and Jamie Shuttleworth were constantly being pulled back towards their own goal, but this left the likes of Steve Martin up front and Freddie Read and Sam Gibson on the flanks isolated. However, the team were keeping the ball away from Charlie Valentine in goal. It was crucial to team morale to get through to half-time at 0-0. 

With this objective achieved, Wilmslow were able to re-group during the interval. A really positive start to the second half led to some fabulous play with the ball being transferred across the back of the defence and then back round again, before threading a ball through the midfield to the forwards. By now Wilmslow were dominating the game and controlling possession in the game. There were 2 or three chances in the D for Read, but his shots didn’t trouble the opposition goalkeeper.

Another brilliant passage of play where the defence moved the ball nicely into midfield then found Gibson on the right. He was able to put the ball across the middle and eventually it was, once again, turned home. With the defence complaining, again the umpires converged and disallowed the goal. Over the next 5-10 minutes Wilmslow began to dominate. The play was largely in the Deeside half and various half chances and opportunities came and went; the most notable was a sustained period of pressure that led to Groves mis-hitting a clear shot on goal and then when the ball came back to him in the next phase of play he slid it under the keeper only to see it rebound off the post.

With under 5 minutes of the match left Wilmslow tired. Deeside attacked. A short corner was given and once again the defence were able to repel the opposition. However, now with less than a minute remaining the umpire signalled for another short corner. This time the shot crept through the keeper and in. Wilmslow were gutted. With no lime left to respond the Men’s 3s were left in defeat once more. This time the post-match mood was upbeat and positive, in spite of the result.

Thanks to the whole team for a great effort as well as the sterling efforts of Ban and Caz for umpiring. The returning Max Nichols was voted by the players as the Wilmslow man of the match.

Deeside knew they had been in a game and some Wilmslow supporters commented after the game that there were “great patterns of play” and that it was a “real pleasure watching from the sidelines” with “some of the best gameplay I’ve watched so far this season”. Onwards and upwards!