Westleigh 2s come close, but no cigar

The sense of anticipation hung heavily in the air when the 2nd XI huddled together in the changing rooms at Leicester Grammar School. Captain Kyle stressed the importance of laying down a marker for the rest of the season, and the team seemed eager to prove a point.

Westleigh started brightly with some confident passing around the back, and it was not long before they created the first chance of the game. Unfortunately, it did not result in that all important first goal.
Leicester looked sharp with a good balance of experience and youth, demonstrating solid skills and pace.
They soon took the lead when an innocuous aerial landed at the feet of their centre forward who raced into the 'D' and slotted past Jesal with consummate ease.

There followed a passage of play where both teams had chances but lacked the clinicalness to make them count.
However, the equalizer finally arrived when some good play down the right from Darren, Joe and Oli led to Mash expertly smashing the ball high into the net with a reverse stick shot (there was no suggestion that it hit his foot in the run up to this!). More chances followed for Westleigh, but a mixture of poor decision making and good defending ensured that both teams ended the half all square.

After some sage advice from the captain, Westleigh took to the field for the 2nd period looking to get the all important second goal. However, it was the home side who started the strongest. Solid defending kept them out for a while with Stokesy and Tony making crucial tackles, Matt using his reverse stick to clear the ball and Darren sweeping the ball away from danger on several occasions.

Their resistance was finally broken when a good hit into the area was deflected into the goal.

Westleigh pressed for an equaliser and Dave Wimbury made a couple of strong runs through the heart of Leicester's defence. On one occasion the only way he could be stopped was by cynical hacking of his legs, which earnt the away team a short corner, and should have resulted in a yellow card.

When the expected punishment was not forthcoming (or at least a talking to), Darren politely enquired of the umpire 'Are we allowed to tackle like that now? If so, that's good - that's how I like to tackle.' The umpire did not share Darren's sense of humour, and produced a green card, which the Westleigh defender accepted with good grace (obviously not swearing and flinging his stick to the ground as he departed the pitch).

Westleigh continued to probe and Leicester were hanging on towards the end, pleading for their midfield to keep hold of the ball to waste time. It was to no avail as the equaliser proved to be elusive.

Overall, it was a promising start away from home. There are learnings that can be taken from the game and the team look forward to proving themselves at home next week.

MOM: Dave Wimbury for his direct running causing problems for the Leicester defence.
DOD: Who else? Darren, for his polite enquiry to the umpire.

Match report by Darrren Bird.