Round 12 of the 5aside league – Wednesday 28th November 2018.

In the first early game, Newbigginners were looking to get back to winning ways after their first defeat in a number of weeks last time out.  They faced Lune Valley Utd who were also searching for a second win in three games.  In what turned out to be a very tight game with limited chances, it was Newbigginners who started the brighter.  Lune Valley were on the back foot, but were resilient and it took 7 minutes before the breakthrough, a lovely taken left footed shot from Jam Robinson.  Newbigginners quickly doubled their lead as Col Sowerby found some space in the right hand channel and placed the ball beyond the Lune Valley keeper.  Half time came and Newbigginners were in complete control.  Lune Valley had barely had a chance but as the teams lined up for the second half, Lune Valley made a tactical change and put their player manager, Alan Wadsworth up front and brought James Sutton back onto the right of midfield.  Immediately it worked and caused a moment of confusion for Newbigginners, with James Sutton nipping in to poke the ball past the Newbigginners keeper.  Two minutes later and James got his second as he found space again on the right and lashed a left footed shot into the bottom corner to level the scores up.  Newbigginners couldn’t quite believe it as they seemed to have the game sown up at half time, but it spurred them back into action and within moments of the restart John Kelsall drove forward from defence and drilled a shot right across goal into the bottom corner, to retake the lead for Newbigginners.  There was still 12 minutes left for Lune Valley to reply, but the equaliser wasn’t forthcoming and it was actually Newbigginners who carved out the better of the chances, without converting any more.

In the other early game of the night, 2 very strong sides in Wray and Quernmore came head to head in an eagerly anticipated match. The game started with Wray looking to assert their strength from the off. Under pressure Quernmore’s Bruno took the ball inside his own area to gift Wray a penalty. Mark Ellershaw calmly dispatching the resulting kick. The lead was quickly doubled when Stephen Harrison sidestepped his man before slotting tidily into the bottom corner for 2-0. Quernmore rallied after the 2nd goal and started finding more possession in the Wray half of the field, and were rewarded when Danny Garrett collected a ball into feet with his back to goal, turning sharply to find the corner with a wonderfully taken finish. Wray responded all too soon for Quernmore’s liking however and Steven Wright grabbed his first of the night with a lovely goal of his own. Beating several players on his way to a calm finish, low into the corner of the goal. With 5 minutes to half time Wray grabbed a 4th when Mark Ellershaw scored his second of the night, profiting off a loose bouncing ball 12 yards from goal. At half time the score was 4-1 to Wray. The second half started with Quernmore on the front foot, keen to get themselves back into the game. A fast flowing move from front to back saw Bruno in the clear and able to provide a lovely tidy finish into the Wray goal to bring his team back in with a shout. Quernmore now having their best spell of the game kept pushing forward and coming close but couldn’t capitalize and Wray hit them on the break with Stephen Harrison getting his second of the night with a hard struck shot from close range. Score now 5-2 with 10 minutes to play. Wray took back control of the game and added numbers 6 and 7 with goals from Steven Wright, his second of the night, and Mark Ellershaw grabbing his hat trick goal! Danny Garrett responded with his second of the night for Quernmore to make it 7-3. Rob Barker and Bruno had further chances to bring the score closer but had their shots well saved, before Martin Huddleston crowned the performance with a spectacular individual goal. A Volley from a very tight angle after a special piece of control. Final score was 8-3 to Wray. Played in excellent spirit from both sides which was great to see. Steven Wright just about shades the Man of the Match with his excellent work all over the field.

At 9pm Graham Atkinson, the Capernwray co-manager, spoke to the lads.  Graham started off by talking about football formations.  When he was younger, there were just 2 or three formations that teams used, but as time has gone on, there are so many different coaches with different ideas about how to play, what systems to use and how to coach their players.  Sometimes you watch teams play and they keep possession well and they do lots of things that you can see their coach has been working on, but they miss doing the most important thing, scoring!  Graham explained that often in life we can get caught up doing lots of different things that we think will help us to have a good life, and sometimes these might actually be great things to do, but we miss the main point of what life is about… Jesus!

In the first late match of the night, Capernwray were up against Garstang.  After a strong start to the game and some very nice intricate football, Capenwray took the lead when Taylor finished off a wonderful sweeping move.  Then followed possibly one of the most bizarre own goals your ever likely to see.  Garstang went on the attack and forced a good save from their keeper Jacob, but from the resulting save the ball fell to his own player Taylor, who looked to kick the ball away up field and in doing so, sliced the ball high into the night sky, dropping down millimeters from the cross bar, over the keepers head, off the line before bouncing off the crossbar again and into the goal.  Never seen anything like it until now!  This piece of bad luck only drove the Capernwray team on and they quickly asserted themselves in the match with several quick goals.  David grabbing his first of the night before Taylor made up for his error with number 3 and his second of the night.  Pascal grabbed a 4th with a very good team move leading up to his very tidy finish.  Taylor added his 3rd and hat-trick goal to make it 5.  Then David really took control of the match and scored his 2nd, 3rd and 4th goals of the evening to see his side lead at break by 8 goals to 1.  In the second half we started very cagey and the game had lost its tempo. Garstang coming close on a couple of occasions as they tried to battle their way back into the tie.  It took until the 12th minute of the second half to bring a goal and it was David on the score sheet again.  A wonderful piece of skill and finish from the ever impressive David to get his 5th of the night.  He was soon on target again grabbing his 6th and 7th goals of a good nights work for him.  And as time was nearly up, Tobias got the goal his efforts deserved when a neat one-two gave him opportunity to slot home into the bottom corner of the goal.  A good second half effort from Garstang after a difficult first half but at the final whistle, Capenwray win by 12 goals to 1.  David taking the man of the match for his outstanding contribution. A joy to watch.

In the final match of the night Chipping, who had Jake Fawcett back from injury were taking on Ingleton.  Brothers Stephen and Tom Whitaker were up against each other and it was Stephen who scored the first goal of the night as he fired his shot high into the Ingleton net.  Ingleton were playing some neat football, but most of it was in their own half and Chipping were getting into some great areas of the pitch.  With Jake playing at the back, but looking to release his team mates and also able to hit a fierce shot from distance, Ingleton were being pegged into a very defensive formation.  Joe Kelsall was next to score, before Jake scored the goal of the game.  As he glided past Ingleton’s striker he unleashed a rocket, which hit the crossbar and in.  Two more goals before half time again from Joe and Jake saw Chipping going in at the break 5 goals to the good.  Second half and Chipping continued where they left off.  Joe getting his hat trick, closely followed by Jake completing his own. Then Steve Cornall joined the act with another fine goal from distance into the side netting.  Joe had his shooting boots on and scored his 4th goal and Chipping’s 9th before Ingleton started to get back into the game.  Josh Capstick had been dribbling past players all night, but hadn’t quite been able to beat James Smith, in Chipping’s goal.  But finally he was on the score sheet, with some lovely footwork as he went past 2 players before a smart finish. This seemed to spur his team on and a couple of minutes later Tom Whitaker pick pocketed a Chipping defender and smashed his shot low and hard for Ingletons second.  Unfortunately that was their final goal of the game, but they did continue to play with more confidence.  Chipping however hadn’t finished, with Oscar Foot getting in on the act before Steve Cornall scored his 2nd and Chipping’s 11th of the night, just before the final whistle.

Thanks again for the match reports from David Whitfield.

Results:

Lune Valley Utd 2 – 3 Newbigginners

Wray 8 – 3 Quernmore

Capernwray 12 – 1 Garstang

Chipping 11 – 2 Ingleton