Cheshire FA Minor Cup - Round 3 (1 November 2009)
Waverton Scorers;
Robbie Foster 1 (4)
Luke White 1 (1)
(season's total in brackets)
MoM Awards;
Coaches: Matt Simpson
Supporters: Jordan Coxall
Match Report
With no competitive game for three weeks there had to be a chance the Wasps would prove a bit "ring rusty", but instead they put in their best performance of the season (yes better than the win over Boughton!) to win a very competitive, Cheshire Cup 3rd Round, tie 2-1 against a strong and competitive team from the Stockport Metro League.
The match kicked off in extremely blustery conditions, and with rain streaming down. You'd never have guessed it though, with both teams making light of the difficult weather to play some excellent football, and the early exchanges were very much honours even. It was immediately clear that Apollo were a very strong team, and they played at a pace and with a quality of passing that were both well above that which Waverton face week in, week out in the Chester & District League. After Apollo had had the first couple of half chances though it was Waverton who took the lead after 15 minutes. The home team were only able to half clear a swirling ball to the edge of the area, where Robbie Foster calmly controlled it and placed a great shot past the Apollo keeper.
The home team reacted very positively to going a goal down, and continued to push forward with a lot of purpose. Despite some strong defending (all over the pitch) from Waverton, Apollo probably deserved their equaliser after half an hour, with a well placed shot into the top corner which gave Ollie no chance. A few minutes later though he did excellently, to tip away a vicious cross/shot which would otherwise have put Apollo in front. Having weathered the storm (in more ways than one!) the Wasps came back into the game strongly as half time approached, and nicked another goal to go back in front. Another extremely quick break (one of many) from Matt Simpson resulted in a good cross from the right, controlled by Matt Sheen who then gave a simple pass to Luke White who in turn smashed it into the roof of the net. So the Wasps finished their best (and toughest) half of football all season with a 2-1 lead at the interval.
The Coach's half time team talk praised the team for a strong first half performance, but warned the Wasps to expect an even stronger barrage from Apollo in the second half, and that certainly proved to be the case. The second half wasn't pretty, but it was full of commitment and full-blooded (but fair) challenges all over the pitch from both teams. It also seemed to last for ever, as Waverton continued to hold just a slender, and very nervous, one goal lead. The high quality of the Wasps defending though (from all 13 players) really restricted Apollo to no more than half chances in the second period, other than a dangerous free kick from the edge of the box (which sailed over), and an occasion when two of their strikers had escaped and were bearing down on Ollie with an equaliser seeming certain, until Jordan Coxall somehow got back with a fantastic last ditch challenge. In truth Waverton probably had the better quality chances to add to the scoring in the second half, but they didn't put any of them away, and so kept their supporters biting their fingernails right up until the final whistle.
In the end though it stayed 2-1, with a real feeling of satisfaction in beating such good quality opponents. This puts the Wasps into the last 16 of the Cheshire Cup, and we await the draw to see who will stand in the way of a place in the Quarter Finals. (The Wasps Dream Team stats will be updated to include this game over the next couple of days). ==============================================================================
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