Cenral Avenue, Beeston, Notts. Saturday December 20th, 2008.
Team: Rhys, Sheldon Miller, Joe Lewis, Dave Smith, Steve Burton, Micky Evans, Rocky Bennett-Bull, Andy Creswell, Josh Slade, Ben Cheetham, Chris Fish.
Subs: Dave Grantham, Tremayne Blair (used).
Wollo Goals: Andy Creswell & Chris Fish
Before you read on with this summarised match report, click on the You Tube clip below to accompany your read with a suitable themed musical soundtrack which probably does more to describe the afternoon's events than any words can do here.
This was one of the lowest points of our season, with this defeat ranking alongside our 4-0 defeat away to Notts. The omens weren't good when Burts turned up half cut after his works Christmas do the night before and with Nick away in South America on his honeymoon and Liam Hill away, we stepped out on to the pitch not at our full strength.
And what a pitch it was, a contender for worst pitch in the league, alongside Woodborough. With poor drainage it held all the rain that had been dumped on it over the previous days and cut up badly from the kick off. However, both teams had to play on it and TVFC got to grips with it better than we did.
TVFC (being a Church team) started in a charitable fashion, handing out drinks bottles to us before the game but the charity begun and ended at that point. We then preceeded to show the most charity, opening up a path to our goal better than Moses could have done for TVFC to exploit.
They carved us open for their first and scored a second from a corner, heading home at the near post. We got back into the game with good play by Ben Cheetham, who picked up a ball down by channel from Muller and turned a couple of defenders before crossing low to Cressy, who finished well.
For a Church team, TVFC show a fair degree of petulance up front. Their striker is a good player but detracts from his ability with his constant harping on to the ref. He had a very good game but he was up against one Wollo centre half who was half cut.
I could go on with details but I'll summarise at this point to say that in the second half we got battered because we failed to retain the ball and gave away possession far too cheaply. We were slow off the mark, slow to challenge for first and second balls and we gave them far too much time and space to play. The greasy conditions were difficult for keepers and Rhys struggled with three shots in particular which were spilled and led to goals but he wasn't the only one to have an off day.
We'll be looking to avenge this result when we play TVFC back at Weirfields at full strength.
Man of the Match: Ben Cheetham...worked his socks off all game to give us a cutting edge up front, held the ball up well and showed some neat footwork, working the channels into the box.
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