Witton Albion JFC

After a couple of weeks of somewhat fruitless tournament activity, Witton brought the season to a close with a game against neighbours and friends Hartford. The manager and coach were seen cursing as they took 50 minutes to construct one goal to the amusement of the watching soccer school and U9’s. Eventually, success was declared as Jimmy (Witton Albion Parents’ top scorer by the way) turned up and asked if he could help. So, after Jimmy had been kicked into the bushes by the management team he emerged to help with the warm up as the management team attempted to get their brains in gear after the strenuous mental struggle of goal construction.

Witton were in an attacking formation and started brightly but it was Hartford who threatened, first with a shot smashed against the crossbar and then the opening goal as a through ball split the defence. An extraordinary first half developed as Witton equalised with a smartly taken Keegan goal and then Hartford went ahead again, leading to a tremendous piece of skill by Theo with a “maradona” and some flick flacks beating 3 Hartford players before passing to Thomas who swept home. Witton were pressing forward as Noah produced some telling passes from the heart of midfield and Keegan produced another goal before a catastrophic back pass in defence led to Hartford getting on level terms as the irritated manager-referee brought the half to a close.

An injury to Alex prevented him from taking the field so Elliot remained in goal for the second half and he continued his strong domination of his box and coped well with the stream of back-passes from an assured Finn in defence. Thomas popped up in the box and dinked the ball up, up and over the goalie for Witton’s fourth, but Hartford were determined and pounced on a clearance to punish the leaden-footed Witton defence. However, that led to Witton rampaging forward as Ollie pressed the beleaguered Hartford defence into submission with an imperious display of aggression which set the basis for Luke Theo and Keegan passing the ball into the net and Luke flicking home with the outside of his boot. A rather unfortunate own goal made it 8 and with a corner in the last minute, Ewan strode forward to claim his goal but his brave header was blocked in the last seconds of the game.
Steve, Koulis and Jimmy had the goals down in a jiffy after the game and joined in the applause for the Witton lads after a hard working but ultimately comfortable victory. Chief Chris was still bemoaning his “dead leg” after falling over the previous evening but found time to race to the local pub and begin berating the manager for being a grumpy so-and-so.

Captain’s man of the match: Luke
Managers man of the match: Ollie
Magic moment: Theo breezing through defenders like a mini-Messi
Quote of the day: “Ollie’s shorts have gone walkabout, does anyone have a spare pair”?