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Woodhurst and Royal Falcons battle out a 1-1 draw at Parmiters |
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Woodhurst |
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Royal Falcons |
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Shepperd |
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Parmiters Sports Ground |
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10.30pm, Sunday 23rd January 05 |
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Essex Sunday Corinthian League Division One |
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Referee: Michael Cohen |
As with most top clubs, it's usually the big players that make the big headlines rather than the football and this game only reinforced that belief.
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A closely contested game which should have been remembered for spells of good football and questionable refereeing, will instead be forever remembered as "the game Andrew threw a wobbly, the proper big one, not one of his usual ones."
Spurred on by last week's impressive goal haul and fortunate results elsewhere, Woodhurst entertained the unbeaten youngsters from Wanstead knowing that this was the biggest game of the season so far in terms of deciding where the championship would end up.
Gaffer Roy Lawley went with the team that finished the previous week, meaning that there was space only on the bench for crowd favourite Jenson Clifford and the newly married, Johnny Weismuller look-a-like Tony Taylor.
So for a second week Lawley deployed a back three, consisting this time of Hughes, Bashford and McShea with Gray briefed to be quick off his line to act as a sweeper. A five man midfield was made up of Probert, Owusu, Woodham, Souleyman and Ladbury, leaving the infamous Jordan/Shepperd partnership up front.
Falcon's unbeaten record and reputation as a pacey side seemed to unnerve the home team, and it took a quarter of an hour before the realisation that the visitors were in fact beatable. Despite looking composed and at times playing good football, Woodhurst all too often reverted to depending on the long ball and against a well organised defence, this frequently ended in frustration.
Woodhurst did keep possession well though particularly due to some hard tackling from Woodham and the usual penetrating runs from Souleyman and this persistence was rewarded mid-way through the first half with a fine finish from Shepperd.
The visitors did show that they had potential to create problems and the referee seemed more than happy to award free kicks as reward for some theatrical diving from the youngsters. The ref's ability was again called into question as Gray escaped punishment after picking up an obvious back pass from the assured Hughes.
The second half was much of the same , some nice flashes but ultimately on too many occasions the final ball let the Nelson Road outfit down. Despite again Woodhurst dominating possession, the Falcons looked useful on the break and it was on one such occasion forced Bashford to stretch for a tackle on the edge of the box. Despite clearly taking the ball the young attacking upstart leapt into the air with a squeal reminiscent of a young lady taking a surprise one up the ricker. The resultant free kick finding its way into the net to make it one apiece.
At this point the frustration of the home side was palatable and only increased as some guilt edge chances went begging, Jordan guilty of inexplicably trying to finish with back heel flick when a side foot tap in seemed the obvious option.
The game was there for the winning until 10 minutes from time when the ever fiery Andrew Shepperd got involved in an innocuous niggle with an opposing defender (for a change) and somehow ended up throwing the ball at the young tyke. Although, perhaps unsurprisingly, missed by the ref the linesman drew his attention to the incident. By this time the red mist had well and truly descended on Sheppard.
The situation then descended into an ugly scene and some even uglier allegations were levelled at the striker as he proceeded to throw, what is referred to up north as a "proper rage", with even veteran hard men Woodham, Lawley and McShea looking a touch sheepish. The imminent red card meant that Woodhurst were down to 10 men and the game petered out in the closing minutes as both teams seemed to settle for the draw.
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Team From
Tom Gray
Paul McShea
Nick Bashford
Steve Hughes
Patrick Ladbury
Simon Probert
Kofi Owusu
Andrew Shepperd
Nigel Jordon
Jimmy Woodham
Jan Souleyman
Subs
Jenssen Clifford
Tony Taylor
Roy Lawley
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Tom Gray
