MEADOW PARK V OLTON RAVENS

Subs

• Davies

• Grady

A hard fought draw saw the Ravens take a point in a tough away game at Meadow Park. A strangely small pitch for this age group (although the playing surface was very good) and tough windy and wet conditions meant this was always going to be a battle with limited space out their for both sides.

Selection would be influenced by Rob and Pete being away on holiday. Jonjo, Ryan and Mark were all back in the side. The game went very much the way you would have expected on a day like this. Very little in the way of football but lots of tackles, blocks and balls to be competed in the air. We held our own in the early stages as our defence and midfield settled but every time we got the ball forward our attackers were unable to hold onto it. Too often the defender snuck in front to get there 1st or our forwards were too easy to push off the ball. This all meant a lot of defending but as usual the lads at the back and the outstanding Stevo kept the opposition out.

Strangely amongst all of the Meadow Park possession we had all of the best 1st half chances. Several corners flashed across the Meadow box with nobody able to connect.

Henner’s had the ball in the net with a cracking volley although the linesman had already given offside. We did make the breakthrough when Jonjo’s free kick evaded everybody and ended up in the far corner. The most disappointing thing from here was that we never pushed on. Meadow pushed us back further and further and eventually we just became very ragged and resorted to hacking the ball clear without any purpose. This was always going to be a fruitless effort in hitting balls over the top on a small pitch, especially as for some reason our forwards today did not want to chase anything.

Half time arrived and our slender lead was in tact. I took off Ryan and Dyl and I did make it clear to all of our forwards that if I had more subs they would have all come off. This was not due to lack of goals but it was down to lack of work rate and fight.

The 2nd half began and to be fair it was no better in the way of quality. The guts and determination were there for all too see. The wind was now in our faces and it really was a question of could we hold out.

The game was also becoming a little too aggressive. Unfortunately the 16 year old ref was way out of his depth and he far to often backed out of the beg decision. None more so than when their forward (who had been looking for fight all game) two footed our goalkeeper. The ref gave a free kick so he obviously saw the incident but no card was handed out. This only encouraged players from both teams to realise what the could get away with. It is always the way that the player who should no longer have been on the field scored the equaliser – with a great finish

The last 15 minutes was frenetic with Meadow Park bossing the territory with several goal mouth scrambles but once again we had chances to win it. Jack Davies powerful striker from distance seemed to be on it’s way in when their keeper made a terrific stop. Two corners saw Henner’s win headers and the ball bounce around their 6 yard box. Finally in the last minute Graham rose highest to head inches over the bar.

The whistle went and a 1-1 scoreline. A battling display but with no class or football shown from us really. Credit to Steven who made several fantastic saves to earn the Man of the match award and a mention to all of the other lads who battled away. I have pointed the finger at our midfield at times when they have not been up to scratch but today they battled to the end. I think our forwards need to ask themselves if they did enough today????

Steve