Brinsworth Whitehill 5 Abbey Lane 2

[chris@tmseurope.co.u]

9th April 2009
Brinsworth Whitehill 5 Abbey Lane 2
Scorers. Ashden Morely, Chris Davis-Smith

This away fixture was switched from Brinsworth School to Catcliffe playing fields, Abbey Lane were up against second in the league Brinsworth Whitehill. On this occasion Abbey Lane managed to scrape 11 players together with Sean Froggatt playing in goal whilst still nursing a back injury. Abbey Lane were still without long term injury Ash Milnes, Goalkeeper Chris Marshall, Liam Pashley away with South Yorkshire and Cole Priestley with a broken finger. The Brinsworth Match Card showed that they had 16 players available, what luxury. James Halliday partnered Oliver Ledger up-front and Chris Howe started at right back after his 2 game stint in goal.

The game kicked off at 6-00pm and Abbey Lane started the game well, matching the opposition in commitment and posing a threat when going forward. However, no real opportunities ensued for both sides until 25 minutes when Abbey Lane took the lead after a corner from the right saw Ashden Morely head his seventh goal of the season. This inspired Abbey Lane and shocked the opposition but an equaliser wasn’t far away when a dubious decision by the referee for a foul against Sam Beech resulted in the free kick being headed in by the Brinsworth Centre back to level the scores 1-1. Brinsworth realised that they had a game on their hands and the tempo of the game continued with opportunities for both sides to take the lead. James Halliday had a clear shot which went past the post after some good build up play by Chris Davis-Smith and Oliver Ledger. Sean Froggatt made an important save down to his right to thwart the opposition late in the half. The first half ended 1-1 and this was far and away the best Abbey Lane performance for many games. The passing was good and the players fought hard to win the ball back. The defence looked solid and the players stamina held up against the oppositions who had the benefit of substituting 3 players during the first half.

The second half started well for Abbey Lane when Sam Beech encroached forward as encouraged by his Assistant Manager from a free-kick just inside the home teams half. As the ball was played in it was cleared only as far as Sam Beech. Sam got the ball under control and ran at the defence, he was pushed to the ground and Abbey Lane were awarded a clear penalty. Chris Davis-Smith took the penalty and it was well saved by the Brinsworth goalkeeper, however, Chris continued his follow-up and placed the rebound into the net. 2-1 to Abbey Lane and at this stage in the game the lead was well deserved. Abbey Lane sensed their first victory in 12 games and continued to push forward, unfortunately the gallant 11 showed signs of tiring and further substitutions by Brinsworth brought a new energy to their play and they soon equalised from another header to level the scores 2-2. The home team were soon in the lead after a penalty when George Morfitt caught the heels of the Brinsworth forward after another counter attack. 3-2 down yet Abbey Lane continued to battle on but unfortunately the opposition were to strong and they eventually came out 5-2 winners. In the end the score-line could have been a lot worse, there were some good saves by Sean Froggatt and Brinsworth hit the bar from a free kick.

Although defeated this was not a fair reflection of the performance, especially the first half. Sean Froggatt deputised well in goal and all players battled well with Sam Beech putting in his best performance of the season.