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
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