This Wednesday, we had another four interesting games as the league comes to an exciting conclusion. Wray faced a potential banana skin as they faced Garstang, whilst Chipping faced Ingleton. At 9pm, Capernwray made their return after the winter break to face a difficult game against Lune Valley, whilst there was a big game in the title race, as Crown Lane faced a really tricky fixture against Newbegginers.
In the first 8pm game, Wray faced off against Garstang. This had the hallmarks of a good game and it didn’t disappoint! The first half was a tight affair, with it taking a couple of minutes for the goal to come. Both keepers made some good saves to keep their opponents out, whilst both teams were working extremely hard to keep defensively strong. The first goal of the game went to Wray, with a good finish from Martin Huddleston, slotting the ball past Tom Whitaker in the Garstang net. Despite this goal, Garstang continued to work hard and look for a way back into the game and they found that through Ben Taylor, who finished well to draw the teams level. Wray soon retook the lead, this time with a good finish from Steven Wright. 2-1. Garstang were giving as good as they good in this tight and intriguing first half and soon found themselves back level. However, this Wray team know how to win and moments before half time, they retook the lead once more, with another good goal from Martin, as he hammered the ball home after a quick and clever counter attack. 3-2 to Wray at half time, but both sides were still well in the game!
Moving into the second half and things began to open up. Wray are a very good side at high pressing and this is what they began to do to Garstang more in the second half. This soon bore them fruit as they intercepted a pass and Martin coolly slotted home to add a fourth to Wray’s score. This began a scoring frenzy for Wray as Garstang became overwhelmed with the pressure from Wray and conceded a number of goals in a short space of time. In no time at all, Wray had quickly and easily increased their lead massively, going from 3-2 at half time to 9-3 minutes later. Wray scored some good goals in this time and were playing some good football to boot. Garstang continued to battle hard but Wray’s persistence was causing them great problems and they went further behind, with Stephen Harrison, Martin Huddleston and Steven Wright all adding a couple of goals each to their tallies, taking them 12-2 up. Garstang did respond midway through the second half, notching to make it 12-3. However, this wasn’t, unfortunately, the start of a revival. Instead, Wray netted another four goals without reply to see out the match to a comfortable win. The pick of the goals was from Steven Harrison, who hit an absolute pearler that curled beautifully into the bottom corner of the net, sealing the win. A good result for Wray in the battle for the title!
In the other 8pm game Chipping took on Ingleton in an entertaining game. Chipping had a superb start to the game and were flying in the first half, scoring 6 unopposed goals against a shell-shocked Ingleton. Joe Kelsall, Steve Cornall, Charlie Thompson and John Townley all nabbed a goal or two each to give Chipping a really healthy lead. The pick of the goals was a thunderbolt by Joe Kelsall, that was riffled into the net. At half time, Ingleton regrouped and came out for the second half, hoping to score a couple of early goals to make it more of a contest – and that’s just what they did! They came out for the second half a different team, they, themselves scoring 6 goals without reply, bringing the scores level at 6-6. It was an unbelievable second half as Chipping crumbled and Ingleton roared forwards, trying to get more and more. Chipping, this time, were the side that were shell-shocked, having thrown away a 6-0 lead. However, they continued to battle hard and soon got a foothold back in the match, battling against Ingleton. The next goal in the game was going to be crucial. Who was the goal going to go to? With a couple of minutes of the game to go, it was Chipping who found the vital goal through Steve Cornall to make the score 7-6. Moments from the end, Chipping further extended that lead, to make it 8-6. After a tricky spell in the second half, Chipping found their feet to be able to deliver a good victory against a solid Ingleton side, who may well feel that they should have got more from the game.
At 9pm, we had Reuben, a student at Capernwray come and share. He told us about two stories – first, that of a friend, who woke up one morning with terrible stomach pain. He told his Mum about this, but she didn’t believe his pain was so great and told him he’d be ok for school. Later in the day, the mother received a phone call, telling her that her son had been rushed to hospital and it was found that his large intestine had wrapped around his small intestine and was killing it off – he lost 2.5 meters of his intestine due to this. He shared another story, this time about his Auntie. He shared how his Auntie had visited the doctor because she had been under the weather and constantly tired. The doctor didn’t believe it to be anything serious and so sent her back home. A couple of months went by and she wasn’t any better, so she returned to the doctors. This time, it was discovered that she had cancer, but ultimately, it was too late to do anything with it and she sadly passed away a couple of months ago. Reuben then went on to share about his own personal testimony and how he searched for answers about faith, explaining how as he searched for answers to disprove the resurrection, it only made him more certain about it. Through his studies, he came to the realization that the resurrection was true and that he needed to live for Jesus. He then went on to say that all of us at 5-a-side have heard a lot of messages this season and we too need to consider these things for ourselves, as life is short and we aren’t guaranteed tomorrow.
At 9pm, we had the return of Capernwray from their winter break to face a tricky test against Lune Valley. They started the game well and scored a couple of good goals without reply before Lune Valley were able to come back into the game with a good finish from James Sutton. One positive for Lune Valley from the game was the debut of young Nathan Wadsworth in nets for them. He made some good saves during the course of the evening, but was no match for the pace and power of some of the Capernwray players. The match ended 13 – 6 to Capernwray, the scoring finished off via a superb goal from James Sutton – taking the ball from the goalkeeper and launching a swerving piledriver from inside his own half into the top corner of the net. Certainly the goal of the night – if not up there for the goal of the season!!
In the other 9pm game, Crown Lane faced a test of their title credentials as they faced Newbegginers. Crown Lane made a fantastic start and raced into a 4-0 lead within 5 first half minutes. There were two superb finishes from Dan Parkinson alongside two tidy finishes from Dan Ginaoccaro. Superb from Crown Lane! Newbegginers were shell shocked at the start and took a few minutes to settle and after that, they came back into it, with two quick goals of their own through tricky striker Tom. He netted some lovely goals. Coming up to half time and Crown Lane were rocked by Newbegginers response, with wave after wave of attack coming at them, with keeper Josh Buchanan making some excellent saves in the process. Just before half time and Newbegginers added a third goal to the tally, through an absolute rocket from Dan Hallam, from the halfway line. A superb finish! At half time it was 4-3 to Crown Lane. Moving into the second half and Newbegginers picked up where they left off, levelling the scores minutes into the half, through DJ Beecham, who also netted a superb goal. Crown Lane, who had made such a good start to the first half, we shell shocked as the scores drew level. The second half was a real battle and both sides were continuing to work hard to try and find a way through but neither side could take the lead. The next goal in this game was going to be vital! As the game was drawing to a close, the battle continued in the last five minutes as Crown Lane found the next goal through the superb Dan Parkinson. This was the break that Crown Lane needed, as moments later they scored again through Dan Parkinson. This took them to 6 – 4. Soon after that, they scored again, to seal the victory, through Dan Giannocaro, with another good finish. Moments from the end of the game, Newbegginers netted again through Ste to make it 7-5, but it was too little, too late to comeback as Crown Lane saw out the game to win 7-5.
We look forward to next week as a number of exciting, but important games take place. Crown Lane face Light Church at 8pm and victory in that game will see them take a giant stride towards securing the title. Also at 8pm is Ingleton vs. Carnforth. The other big game of the evening is Capernwray vs. Wray at 9pm. Wray need to win this game to give themselves a shot at winning the title, as if they lose, combined with a Crown Lane win, it will hand them their maiden title. It will certainly be interesting to see what happens! In the other 9pm game, Sam Dennis’ side face Lune Valley in another good, mid-table battle.
