Witton Albion JFC

Following this hard fought, but ultimately comfortable win for Witton Albion the grumpmeister manager inspired the troops with his words of wisdom; “in football you win games, lose games and er sometimes draw them as well”. Witton were accorded a warm welcome by Dave and the Congleton team after a soggy trudge through the East-Cheshire uplands. No such concerns for the Witton travelling army, who soon targeted the butty van and under urging from their hotdog-munching leader Jimmy Cripps (Witton parents’ top goalscorer by the way) eventually ambled up to take in some football.

After the warm up by the fence, Witton started brightly, albeit giving away possession like Christmas had come exceptionally early (or late depending on your point of view), but any attack was being met confidently by Ewan in defence and Alex in goal. On 10 minutes Witton opened the scoring as Lewis smashed in a volley, which preceded an extended period of pinball in the Congleton box as the woodwork, frantic defenders and the goalie kept the Albs and Sergeant Wilko at bay. Towards the end of the half the manager was seen breaking into a smile as the team worked a tactical corner and Ollie was able to slam the ball home, followed moments later by Thomas rounding the keeper to give Witton a 3 goal cushion at half time.

“Ohh I’ve missed this on a Saturday, having that feeling in my chest” exclaimed Jodie J on the touchline, as the veteran keeper Elliot came back into the team after a period of absence, producing a couple of great saves as Congleton started to pressurise in the second half. Witton were looking good on the attack though, finding some good space on the flanks and eventually Keegan was able to extend the lead with a coolly taken finish. More chances went begging, and Witton conceded after a brief period of Congleton pressure during which a great goal-line clearance from Tom A. In the last few minutes, Noah was released from his leg-numbing tackling duty in defence and was sent up front, it was his smart shot with ricoched out to Theo who smashed the ball into the net.

Coaching chief Chris was so chuffed he splashed out on “burgers for all” at the world’s best butty van, unfortunately most of the team had already left but Chris made a good effort at consuming the 12 additional burgers as he was fawned over by the butty van staff like some demi-god.

Captain’s Man of the Match: Ollie
Managers Man of the Match: Tom A
Magic moment: Noah’s bone crunching tackle in the first half (no surrender!)
Quote of the day: “get in the wall, get in the wall...come on we need a wall not a chain link fence!”