<br>Thursday May 11th - Mid-Cheshire League President?s Cup Final at Congleton T.<br><br>POYNTON 1 WITTON ALBION RESERVES 0 <br><br>TEAM: Clarke; Bailey I. (Smith70), Jump, Ward, Murray; Barrhill, Tulloch (McNamara 80), Jarrett, Hurley (Cartner 65), Williams, Hurst. Subs n/u Hughes & Parkinson<br><br><br>The very fact that the earlier round tie at Billinge was postponed three times thus forcing this final to be put back from the original date certainly had a bearing and to one player in particular a heavy financial cost. <br><br>Forced to sit out was goalkeeper Brett Walker who was serving a 7 day suspension this week, whilst influential fast midfield player Rick Bailey woke up on Sunday morning to discover he?d sustained a broken arm during the previous afternoon?s semi-final game at Crosfields. Defender Matt Murray must though be singled out for praise as he?d booked to fly out to Spain this week but such was his desire to play in the final he switched his flight thus incurring a three figure supplement!<br><br>Nevertheless the whole of the Albion second string put up a magnificent display, constantly taking the game to Poynton. Indeed if it were a boxing match then the referee might well have stopped the contest such was their overall domination. <br><br>To give Poynton credit though their two central defenders coped well with the lively Andy Hurst and Leon Williams and their goalkeeper ? who it has to be said was very mouthy throughout ? produced two quality saves, to keep his side in front.<br><br>Ironically then the only goal of the match scored in the 8th minute came from a Witton mistake. Danny Jarrett and 17 year old Iain Bailey got themselves in a mess and a wayward pass was seized upon. Despite Keiron Clarke coming out to narrow the angle the ball was lobbed over him. <br><br>At the other end no such luck when three times Poynton?s keeper only parried the ball and was fortunate no Albion player was close by. The two best scoring opportunities came to Ryan Barhill, whose rising shot was somehow pushed onto the crossbar and over ? the referee though failed to give the keeper credit when he awarded a goal-kick! Then when Leon Williams got right in on goal to flick what looked like the ball home, the keeper pulled off a tremendous dive to his left to keep the ball out.<br><br>So it was a somewhat dejected squad that came forward to collect their runners-up medals but overall they should be proud of their achievements, not only in this match but over the whole season in general. <br>
dissapointing that despite 70% possession we could not score ? I can only remember 1 real chance they had and they scored ? :(<br>It was one of those nights from when they scored I thought it would not be Wittons night, time to regroup and build for next season - a real assault on the title & cups and to push some players harder to get a regular first team slot 