After another extraordinary game, the Wasps eventually sealed another victory, by a margin of 5-3, to stay at the top of the Chester & District League. But with only a few minutes remaining they were still trailing 3-1, and only secured victory by demonstrating an amazing determination to keep fighting right up until the end.
It all looked very promising for the first five minutes, with Waverton knocking the ball around nicely and cutting open the Castrol defence 3 or 4 times, only to miss the final chance on each occasion. They were unfortunately made to pay for this, as a breakaway from Castrol, after ten minutes, resulted in their first shot on goal, which then took a wicked deflection off Jordan Coxall to fly past Ollie Tyler. Unbelievably, in a season which has now seen seven victories and one draw, this is the fifth time the Wasps have gone behind. The goal seemed to set the team back on their heels, and worse was to follow, as a fantastic shot from a Castrol striker put his team 2-0 ahead.
Shocked by the scoreline the Waverton team really didn't play well for the remainder of the first half, and in their desperation to get a goal back they ended up hurrying everything and hitting hopeful balls, rather than going back to playing good passing football. Even when they did create chances, either the finishing wasn't up to scratch or the woodwork saved Castrol. As a result Waverton went into the break 2-0 down in a game where they'd had the lions share of the possession. The only consolation to take at half time was that the team must know they could still come back, having done it before!
Waverton pushed hard from the restart and soon had something to show for it. Just as he'd done against Nomads Colts, from a similar situation, Sam Jones hit an unstoppable free kick into the top corner to make it 2-1. From there though it just seemed like the Wasps were not going to get any slice of luck, and despite creating numerous chances most of them (four at least!) just kept rebouding back off the bar or a post. As the frustration grew on the pitch (and amongst the supporters!) Waverton started to commit more and more players forward seeking an equaliser, and as a result the almost inevitable happened, with Castrol scoring a third goal on the break. The Wasps were now 3-1 down with seven minutes to go.
Having defended doggedly though (with a fair degree of time wasting), Castrol almost seemed to relax at this point as if they'd won, and started to give the ball away, and the Waverton team (having not led their heads go down) showed amazing character to start taking advantage of this. Within 3 minutes Matt Sheen had scored two goals to level the scores at 3-3. Suddenly the momentum was with the Wasps, who continued to push forward strongly, and it was Castrol that were starting to look shell shocked. With attacks suddenly coming in from all directions, and defenders who'd been solid all game starting to panic, it was only a couple more minutes before Waverton had taken the lead, with a second goal from Sam Jones and then Matt Sheen completing his hat-trick.
In an amazing turnaround the Wasps had gone from two goals down, to two goals up, with four goals in the space of five minutes! To the very great relief of the team, coach and supporters they then played out the final two minutes to run out winners, something which had looked impossible only a few minutes earlier. Next week it's Chester Nomads, a tougher prospect on paper, and the Wasps really do need to score the first goal! (Dream Team scores updated to include this game).
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