Witton Albion JFC

This weekend we faced table toppers Newton Athletic who had a 100% record in the league this season. We knew this was going to be a tough game against an U18 outfit but boy the lads give this a bloody good go! From the early exchanges we held our own with twinkle toes Tommy coming very close with an excellent effort just sailing past the top corner. The midfielders were having a great day winning the majority of challenges and loose balls, defenders strong as ever, Sam Robson and the front two putting in a shift not allowing Newton to play the football they wanted. As the first half wore on we looked like we could go in level or even in front. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case - we conceded a free-kick to call it a soft call by the ref would be an understatement) and we struggled to clear our lines and found ourselves 1-0 down (tough one to take). Couple more long range efforts from the lads keeping Newton on their toes and frustrating their manager on the sides with our terrier like work rate. After getting hit on the counter Max pulls off another fantastic save (like previous weeks) keeping the score at 1-0 half-time.
We had to manage the fitness of the lads in second half with us only having 2 subs available so this made this performance even more impressive. Newton came at us this half but still came up on our brick wall back line time and time again. Still we wanted to play our style of football and looked dangerous going forward. 20 mins into the half a mis-timed back pass allows the Newton striker in to slot past Max 2-0. Credit where credit is due - Newton then went on to manage the rest of the game, seeing it out for a 2-0 victory. This isn’t the story of the game though.... The fight, the desire, the heart and the togetherness of the team today showed itself. We may have lost but we lost playing football to a team who have not lost a game in 2 years and boy they had to earn it today. Excellent performance from the lads - we couldn’t have asked anymore from them. Thanks to Newton for an excellent game.