Westleigh lose away to the league leaders

On another damp and dreary day, Westleigh 2s travelled to the market town of Ashby to try to halt the progress of the early league leaders. The players gathered in the changing rooms ahead of pushback, relieved to find that they had a full team, and even a sub, albeit a few people were carrying injuries. When Jonny walked into the room, wearing what looked like eye-liner (apparently, it was the remnants of a Halloween party the night before), the team hoped that would be the scariest sight they would witness that day.

The start of the game duly arrived, and it was the away team, uncharacteristically, who looked the brightest. A few good chances were created after some confident passing. One of these came after Darren drove into the area from the right-hand side and drove the ball across the face of goal, and just wide.

Ashby looked confident on the ball, but they appeared shocked with how well the Leicester team were playing. However, it was on the break when the deadlock was broken. The ball was played through to the Ashby centre forward who found himself free in the area, and calmly slotted past Jim.

The goal seemed to settle the home team and they continued to push for a second goal. Although, Westleigh were still playing well, Ashby looked dangerous. A second goal duly arrived when some poor marking led to a chance being put away from close range.
Westleigh did create chances of their own, one from a short corner which was played back to Darren, who shot at goal, but it deflected wide off a defender. Ashby managed to pretty much seal the victory before half-time, with an almost replica of their second goal, a player being left in front of goal and easily slotting the ball into the net.

Half time arrived, and the advice from JK and the captain, was to stay composed and don’t rush the game. Ashby did continue to dominate, but Westleigh’s defence was much stronger this half, and combined with some great saves from Jim, they managed to frustrate the home side. It was on the break where the away team created their best chances. Oli had one of these when he found himself one-on-one with the ‘keeper. However, he had evidently been observing Josh Noon, and ran straight at the goalie, who cleared the ball.

A couple of short corners were also won by Westleigh, but unfortunately, they could not get the all-important goal, that may have given them hope to get back into the game. A couple of notable events in the second half were when Oli misplaced a pass and threw his stick to the ground in pure frustration, which earnt him a couple of DOD votes, and also when Nick got hammered on the ankle by the ball in an attempt to block a pass, which saw him limp off in pain. There was a sense of pride in keeping the title chasing team from scoring in the second half, but unfortunately, just before the end of the game, Ashby did manage to score on the break, with Jim being rounded after he slipped, and the ball was struck home.

The game ended 4-0, but with better defending in the first half, this could have been much closer. There also needs to be more focus on taking chances at the other end.

MOM: Tom Wraith, solid in the middle of the park, making important defensive interceptions.
DOD: Not Darren this week! JK, for still wearing fancy dress make up from the night before, and not being bothered to arm wrestle Darren.

Match Report by Darren Bird