Witton Albion JFC

Witton went into the game against Park Royal on the back of an astonishingly bad run of results, having topped the table briefly in November. The whole club were on the verge of “doing a Ranieri” on the manager, whose moaning had reached “Fergie levels” of annoyance in recent weeks. Park Royal pitched up in good time, old friends of Witton, led by Andrew, Phil and Nick as Lamby and the Chief drilled the Albs…. “hey we prefer your warm ups to the grumpy man” … exclaimed the lucky strikers and goalkeepers. It was lucky hats, pants and the whole lot as Witton were desperate to start the winning theme once again.

Unusally, Witton opened the game with a complete disaster as they slumped to a 2 goal deficit despite an excellent penalty save by Alex and some excellent defending by Damien and Fin O. As the first substitute rotations came, Witton slowly began to awake as Theo stopped yawning and began to muscle his way into the Park Royal defence. Sergeant Wilko started to impose himself on the game and suddenly Noah was spraying passes around the pitch, leading to Keegan going on a trademark galloping run to peg one back for the Albs. Joy followed 2 minutes later as Noah ignored the manager’s shouts of “look at Sergeant Wilko” and crossed for Keegan to nod home the equaliser. The manager sank to his knees in joy at the first headed goal since Luke scored in October 2015, only to be told by a proud Keegan that “hey, that came off my shoulder”.

The management team made a number of changes at half time and buoyed by a supportive home crowd, Witton began to dominate the game. Harry was posted at the back and won every single header he was offered, a real bonus to the team as one set Dan off on a long run, unlucky not to score. Tom A was also looking very mobile on the right side – one of his best games yet – whilst Sam was also striving on the left flank. Elliot J was releasing players from the back and one short pass led to Ollie (putting in another great shift) combining with Thomas, who released a killer ball to Luke….3-2 and an excellent finish from Witton’s 2015/16 player of the year.

After the game, most were relieved to see a win after a strange set of results…but the Albs worked hard for the result and a win was fully deserved. “I did the strikers’ warm up today, I think it showed”, crowed a belligerent Chief after the game as the lads poured the water bottles into his jacket.

Captain’s man of the match: Luke
Managers man of the match: Ollie
Magic moment: Harry and Keegan in defence – great stuff lads
Quote of the day: “is he the doughnut man” (see Park Royal match report from U10’s!)