City lined up as follows; English, Harding, Bell, Green, Watson, Monaghan, Griffiths, Shore, Simpson, Burton & Ward. Subs; Hetherington, Hartley, Henderson & Raine.
Winscale were a young side and I would say even younger than our own team.
The pitch was dead and quite heavy and slippery in parts, making a passing game difficult, but credit to both teams who tried to keep it on the ground and play. There was plenty of effort and commitment but little quality, particularly in the final third.
The game was basically being played out in the mid field, with both defences keeping on top of the opposition forwards, who were struggling to make an impact.
A regulation punt into the City box seen the normally impeccable Jordan English drop the ball, under pressure to be fair, at the Winscale forward's feet and he duly converted to make it 1-0. Really that was all I can say about the first half, it was that much of a non event. Half time arrived and one or two of the players seemed a little perplexed at how they were losing.
The City youngster's needed to up the tempo a bit in the second half if they were going to preserve their unbeaten run and they certainly did that. The first 25 minutes seen City almost constantly on the attack, they were sharper to the ball, passed it quicker and made better use of the space that was afforded to them by taking the game to Winscale. Jam Burton scored 2 goals in relatively quick succession to give us the lead, but we just couldn't get a killer third goal that would have made the final 20 minutes a bit more comfortable.
As the game drew on, City's inability to turn chances into goals nearly came back to haunt them (did you get that Brian, game played 31st Oct) when the young Winscale number 9 had a couple of chances to draw them level, but fortunately he couldn't take them.
All in all 3 hard earned points, good attitude, effort and commitment from everyone, again though we do need to learn to adapt to the conditions a little bit better and quicker than Saturday, especially as I'm writing this post it is chucking it down so I would guess Barton Laws on Saturday will not be pretty.
MOM - Matty Shore, he covered every blade of grass, won loads of tackles and used the ball intelligently.
I can agree with most of that Brian, I feel that the boys who represented the club in the game, where committed and very honest and mostly delivered everything asked of them, by the coaches. They combined both their willingness to listen and their own ability to create a winning performance. 3 points when your at the top of the table, is 3 points, everyone wants to beat you and most teams play 10% extra when they play the league leaders. And at the moment that's what they are, and with Hendo I am sure that's where they will stay, if they show the same desire and commitment.
Wilbo, I am only adding to your statement, not detracting.... but I was buzzing after the game, as if they were my own players..... which can only be good.
