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4-1 to lancaster city res, match report to follow…
Lancaster City Reserves 4 v Witton Reserves 1
Lancashire League
Thursday 19 January 2012
We arrived at Lancaster at 6.55 with KO at 7:30pm, delays on the M6 made the warm up and team talk a lot quicker than normal but the lads seemed up for the game ahead to Lancaster who are currently sitting nicely at the top of our division.
Team: GK Marlor, Maddock, Davies, Owen, Hadzik, J. Harrison, Burgess, Randle, Swann, J. Woolley, Buchan
Subs used: Brown, Wells, Van Hein,
Subs unused: Carter
The pitch was a new 3G pitch used by Myerscough College was a hard pitch to read from our lads not playing as many games on these types of pitches as the home side but with the new management team of myself (Shaun carter) and Simon Hughes we were more than ready for the challenge ahead of us.
Witton shaped up with 4-4-1-1 formation with Mark Buchan leading the line for Witton upfront, the game starting with Witton having most of the ball and it wasn’t long before we made this count playing some nice football from our fullback to our winger up to Woolley playing in the hole linking up with Buchan for a 1-2 for Woolley to riffle a shot from 20 yards into the top corner, 1-0 Witton after 10 minutes.
Lancaster seemed shocked by this and therefore Witton had to be stuck up a lot of pressure before we could regain the ball again, but we shaped up well with our banks of 4 & 5 Lancaster found it hard to break us down. As the wind began up grew stronger Lancaster were pressing with the ball with Witton backing off allowing them to get a shot off from 25 yards for the ball to move all over the place and flew into the back of the net, 1-1 game on.
Buchan running his socks off upfront catching their defense out twice but unable to make the chances count Lancaster went long only for 1 of our centre backs being too high and the other one failing to clear the ball Lancaster scored 2-1 HT.
The most important thing at halftime was that we were still in the game and at 2-1 we were very much so, the 2nd half started with Lancaster kicking off and into the wind this half and with Witton shaping up in a more attacking formation of 4-3-3 to allow support to Buchan and stop Lancaster playing out from the back. These changes seemed to work with Witton playing the ball around well from our defense linking up again with our midfield to our wide striker to create the triangles for us to keep the ball and progress up the pitch and we do so with Woolley having a good chance only to play the ball slightly too late and Lancaster intercepting. Wasn’t soon after that Lancaster spread the ball wide and managed to get a cross into the Witton box with our defense failed to clear the ball properly with it landing to the feet of Lancaster striker to take a shot and for that easy shot to take a deflection past our goalkeeper, 3-1 Lancaster. Lancaster’s 4th goal came from Maddock giving away a foul just inside our half and Lancaster playing it short to the winger and playing 1-2 with their striker he found himself pass the ball past our goalkeeper. Despite being 4-1 down Witton continued to play good football but weren’t able to create enough clear cut chances in the final third.
Full time: Lancaster 4 – 1 Witton
Our team was made up of 2 players from our 1st team and a total of 6 17 year olds Witton had it tough from the start with Lancaster having a total of 11 out of their 14 squad which were 1st team players, not knowing this until after half time and our squad not knowing till after the match, me and Si were pleased with our teams performances on such a windy night. Onwards and upwards for Witton.
Fleetwood Town are our next visitor playing at Wincham Park on Thursday 26th January 7:45pm KO.
I shall be selling football cards on Witton’s first team games to raise money for the reserves squad so please have a go and show your support.
Player sponsorship is now reduced for the rest of the season to £15 and match sponsorship to £35, see myself for more information.
Shaun Carter
Manager