Monday, May 3, 2010

Princes Villa 1 v 6 AFC Waverton Wasps

Chester & District League (2 May 2010)

Waverton Scorers (season's total in brackets)

Matt Sheen  2 (43)

Will Doerr  2 (3)

Sam Jones  1 (16)

Robbie Foster  1 (11)

Report

After all the drama and the heartache that's come before it was almost inevitable that Waverton would end up securing their first league title in one of their most uneventful games of the season! This was a very comfortable 6-1 victory over Princes Villa, but importantly it puts them beyond Boughton's reach, and thus marks the first Wasps victory in the Chester & District league.

The first fifteen minutes was some of the best passing football the team have produced at any point in this successful season, and it was simply too good for Princes Villa to cope with, resulting in simple tap in goals for Will Doerr, Robbie Simpson and Matt Sheen, two of them after some great interplay down the right between Sam Jones and Matty Harland-Jones.

After coasting through the remainder of the first half, with Princes Villa rarely threatening the solid Waverton defence, the team went into the break with a 3-0 lead, looking a long odds on chance to secure the title. The pattern was little changed in the second half, with further Waverton goals from Will Doerr, Matt Sheen and Robbie Foster. Defensively the Wasps deserved a clean sheet, but just missed out after Princes Villa's continued efforts were rewarded with one consolation strike mid way through the half.

So it was a comfortable 6-1 at the end, and the title was secured. It may not have been as exciting as some of what had passed before (but very good for the nerves!), but the team's consistency, team spirit and fighting qualities throughout the season have made them deserved CHAMPIONS!!! Now it's time to concentrate on the Cup Final and the chance for a memorable double.

Time for a bit of a season to date stats update;

Played 22, Won 19, Drawn 1, Lost 2.

Goals For 106, Goals Against 44 (in the second half it's F64 A18!)

Scorers

43  -  Matt Sheen

16  -  Sam Jones

11  -  Robbie Foster

7   -  Matt Simpson & Alex Wilkinson

4   -  Luke White

3   -  Cameron Faulkner, Jorge Percival & Will Doerr

2   -  Jordan Coxall, Matt Bannaghan & Scott Evans

1   -  Alex Abraham, George Gresty & Own Goal 

Appearances

22  -  Alex Wilkinson, Robbie Foster, Matt Sheen & George Gresty

21  -  Jorge Percival, Jordan Coxall, Cameron Faulkner & Ollie Tyler

20  -  Will Doerr

19  -  Sam Jones & Alex Abraham

11  -  Matt Bannaghan

10  -  Matt Simpson & Sam Gilliland

8   -  Luke White

2   -  Scott Evans

1   -  Matt Harland-Jones 

MoM Awards

6  -  Matt Sheen

3  -  Alex Wilkinson, Jordan Coxall, Matt Simpson, Will Doerr, Robbie Foster, Cameron Faulkner & Ollie Tyler

2  -  Sam Jones, Jorge Percival, George Gresty & Matt Bannaghan

1  -  Scott Evans 

AFC Waverton Wasps 6 v 2 Castrol Athletic

Chester & District League (25 April 2010)

Waverton Scorers (season's total in brackets)

Matt Simpson  3 (7)

Matt Sheen  2 (41)

Robbie Foster  1 (10)

Coach's MoM  -  Matt Simpson

Supporters' MoM  -  Matt Bannaghan

Report

After last week's Semi-Final victory (making it much harder than it needed to be!) it was back to league action for the Wasps, with the small matter of a first League Title to win! In order to take an unassailable lead at the top, Waverton needed to win two of their final three league games, and despite another small scare at the start they chalked up the first of these victories fairly easily against a Castrol side who will be going down to League Two next season.

The Wasps started brightly, but once again squandered a whole host of early chances, as a result of which the Castrol team started to play with a bit more confidence. It was still against the run of play however when Castrol took the lead, with an excellent strike from the edge of the box, after Waverton had only half cleared a corner. Despite this setback though the Wasps continued to play good approach football, but somehow managed to keep failing to finish off their numerous good moves. At one point, after about 15 minutes, the Sky statistics would probably have read "Castrol 1 shot, Waverton 12 shots" but amazingly the away side still held a one goal lead.

It still seemed inevitable however that the floodgates would open, and after Matt Simpson eventually slotted home the equaliser after 20 minutes it was one way traffic for the remainder of the half and unsurprising that Matt Sheen and Robbie Foster added two further goals to take Waverton into the half time break with a 3-1 lead, an advantage their overall dominance had more than deserved.

With a comfortable lead the second half was much less eventful, and far less stressful for the long suffering Waverton management & supporters. The two striking Matts had both added a second to their tallies mid way through the second half, making it 5-1, before Castrol pulled back a second consolation goal after the only real lapse all game from the Waverton defence (who'd all performed much better and more calmly than in last week's SF). The final few minutes saw the Wasps largely sitting on their comfortable lead, and the only real event of note was Matt Simpson scoring his hat-trick goal to make it 6-2 at the final whistle.

So, just two league games to go (Princes Villa & Newton) and Waverton need just one more victory from these to ensure they beat Boughton into second place and secure the league title. The Princes Villa game next weekend could see them over the finishing line.