Chester Nomads Colts 1 v 3 AFC Waverton Wasps

Chester & District League (17 October 2010)

Waverton Scorers (season's total in brackets)

Sam Jones  -  3 (9)

Report

In a match which was much more comfortable than the scoreline suggests Waverton cruised to their sixth straight league victory of the season, maintaining a six point advantage at the top of the table.

The team lined up with another new formation (with the manager clearly having too much time on his hands!), with Robbie Foster asked to take a "holding" role in front of the back four, and from the first whistle it appeared to work well with Waverton dominant from the start. The Colts were clearly keen to avoid the margin of victory they'd suffered earlier in the season and were set up much more defensively than usual themselves. As a result it took the Wasps around 20 minutes to take the lead their play deserved, with Sam Jones running on to an Alex Wilkinson through ball to slot home past the advancing keeper. The away team continued to dominate possession after their breakthrough, but coming up against some dogged defending from the Colts they were unable to add to their lead before half time.

There was no sense of panic from the Wasps about holding such a slender lead though, picking up exactly where they'd left off at the start as the second period got underway, and it paid dividends after just a couple of minutes. Another strong cross from the left from Matt Sheen was headed on by Aaron Hassall and scrambled home by Sam Jones to double the Wasps lead. Half way through the half Matt Sheen won a free kick on the left, and the Wasps dead ball specialist Sam Jones produced another great strike to complete his hat-trick, and to earn himself bragging rights all week at school!

At this point both sides seemed to accept that the contest was effectively over, and although Waverton continued to outplay their opponents there was little further goal threat at either end. Once again the Wasps had defended very solidly throughout the match, with the added protection of Robbie in front of them, and looked well set for their first clean sheet of the season until a mix up in a reorganised back line let the Colts in for a late consolation goal with just a couple of minutes to go. The game ended without further incident though, leaving Waverton with the following excellent record from the first half of their league campaign;

Played 6, Won 6, Goals For 32, Goals Against 9

Scorers; Matt Sheen 12, Sam Jones 9, Alex Wilkinson 6, Robbie Foster 2, Cameron Faulkner 1, Charlie Nicholson 1, Jordan Coxall 1

Manager's MoM: Aaron Hassall

Supporters' MoM: Robbie Foster   

 

Vicars Cross Dynamos 2 v 5 AFC Waverton Wasps

Chester & District League (10 October 2010)

Waverton Scorers (season's total in brackets)

Matt Sheen  -  3 (12)

Charlie Nicholson  -  1 (1)

Jordan Coxall  -  1 (1)

Report

Despite making this much harder than they needed to, Waverton eventually ran out winners by a comfortable scoreline of 5-2, and as a result they retain their 100% record for the season and maintain their lead at the top of the table.

The Wasps lined up in an unfamiliar 4-3-3 formation at kick off, giving a start to a number of the squad players. This didn't impact on their dominance of possession, but the unfamiliar balance of the side did seem to prevent the team from finishing any of their moves to take a deserved lead. In particular, Matt Sheen was running the right back ragged throughout the first half, but the other strikers just couldn't apply any decisive strikes to the series of good quality crosses that he was delivering. It was only after 25 minutes or so therefore that Waverton eventually broke the deadlock, with Charlie Nicholson latching on to another through ball from Matt to put the team 1-0 up. With Matt Sheen himself adding a second of his own before the break, and the defence having restricted Vicars Cross to a couple of speculative shots, Waverton went in to half time with a 2-0 led that was probably less than their dominance deserved.

Vicars Cross had not really threatened during the first period, so it was a bit of a surprise when they quickly hit back to 2-1 after the restart. Waverton still have a weakness defending set pieces, and with a corner only half cleared one of the Wasps "old boys" Seb Dunn scored in the top corner. As they've done all season though Waverton responded well to the set back and simply pushed forward again, but it seemed to be "one of those days" as a number of chances went begging and the Wasps again failed to take the size of lead their possession and play should clearly be giving them. As a result there was almost an inevitability that they'd get hit by another sucker punch, and when a couple of chances were missed to clear a rare Vicars Cross attack the home team capitalised on it to bring the scores level at 2-2, with just ten minutes remaining.

As they did so many times last season though, Waverton kept calm and simply pushed on even harder to re-establish their advantage. This time it was Vicars Cross who struggled to clear a corner, and when Alex Wilkinson prodded it goalwards Jordan Coxall was on hand to force it in from close range, to put Waverton 3-2 up. With their noses back in front the Wasps calmed down and played some of their best football of the match in the last 5 or 6 minutes, with Matt Sheen calmly converting through balls from Robbie Foster & Alex Wilkinson to complete another hat-trick, and to put himself firmly back on top of the Wasps Dream Team stats.

So a scoreline of 5-2 looks very comfortable in the end, and it's probably less than Waverton's overall dominance deserved, but they do need to be more clinical on occasions, and make sure games like this are won as easily as they should be given the way they've dominated possession. Still it's now five straight league wins, and a six point margin from second place, putting Waverton in the driving seat to retain their title.

Manager's MoM  -  Matt Sheen

Supporters' MoM - Charlie Nicholson & Jordan Coxall