Witton Albion JFC

As the first Autumnal rains swept over the outer Northwich highlands, Witton Albion descended in force and soon impressed the Cuddington management team with the giant whiteboard: “hey, they’ve got a whiteboard” shouted one of the eager Cuddy assistants before the game. Cuddington showed admirable hospitality and Koulis was again first in the queue for the bacon rolls/barms/cobs/butties (delete as appropriate for location of origin).

Witton started with an attacking formation of 2-3-5, or possibly 2-3-2-1…oh anyway an attacking formation. The game was fairly open initially, leading to goalkeeper Alex making his only touch of the game (another clean sheet), before releasing Ewan on one of his many excellent runs up the left flank – surely it is only a matter of time before he starts to put the goals alongside his diligent displays. Despite a great shooting warm up for the attacking unit, Witton squandered chance after chance in the first half and with an increasingly stroppy manager annoying fans of both teams, Witton were in danger of throwing away the game. Luckily, at the back Noah and Tom A were looking very solid with some excellent covering and teamwork between the defensive duo only one shot sneaked through to Elliot J who caught a hard free-kick in his seemingly glue-like hands.

After the usual half-time berating by the manager, Witton seemed to understand that the game was for the taking and after a number of chances went a-begging, Lewis grabbed his well deserved goal before Theo added another. After some poor defensive work, Witton allowed Cuddy to browse and chill out in the defensive half and despite the best efforts of Finn desperately trying to bravely tackle, a goal was conceded. Luke and Sergeant Wilko provided faultless displays in midfield and were both unlucky not to get on the scoresheet, with Witton fans still asking: “what is this scoresheet”? Witton were flowing forward and Thomas slotted two nicely taken one-on-one efforts which included the new “bazooka” style goal celebration – one for fans of war whatever their football persuasion. In the final ten minutes, following a stunning save from Elliot (stunning as in even the grumpy Cuddy fan proclaimed it a great save), Witton were completely dominant with Keegan at heart of every attack, laying off some great passes to team-mates and going oh-so-close on a couple of attempts before Theo popped up and put his manager on his knees by smashing home a fantastic left foot shoot - the first contender for goal of the season.

Post-match reaction from Cuddington Manager Adam was fairly positive despite the loss of a key defensive stopper at half time, whilst Witton chief Chris was upbeat; “I think the whiteboard helped a lot today”, exclaimed the ever-positive Witton stalwart as the manager was forced onto his knees (again) by Ewan the magnificent headerer.

Captain’s Man of the Match: Thomas
Managers Man of the Match: Tom A
Manager’s Magic moment: Elliot J – caught a hard free kick that Casillas/Buffon/Cesar would have punched.
Quote of the day: “You’re a better door than a window”