Witton Albion Supporters FC 0 v 1 Raymond FC
Witton Team
GK - Haspell; DF - Robinson, Marshall; MF - Prew, Blundell(c); FW - Green
Subs - Stuart, Chadwick, , Carter, Jones(Unused)
MOTM - Prew (perhaps the only Witton player to perform to full ability)
Next Best - Chadwick (worked hard to find a breakthrough, but hitting the crossbar was unfortunately as close as he came)
Witton Rating ***
Match Rating ***
Witton failed to capitalise on having a one man advantage in this bad-tempered encounter.
The atmosphere was perhaps set early on when a Raymond attacker told Greg Marshall to ‘F**k off’. Wasted breath in my opinion, as i have been saying the same thing to him for months but he continues to hang around like a bad smell. Anyway, moving on…
Witton had alot of the ball in the Raymond half early on, and perhaps could of scored had the goalkeeper not slid outside his area to clear a loose ball - an offense which the referee failed to see. Raymond were limited to trying to hit Witton on the counter attack, but managed to create more than most other opponents had done in the last few weeks.
Mid-way through the first half there was panic on the Witton bench when Robinson dropped to the floor after a robust challenge from one of the Raymond players. As Dan Stuart rushed to take his place on the field though, Robinson waved him away - determined to at least finish the half. This one incident perhaps turned the game, as minutes later Robinson was again on the recieving end of a poor Raymond challenge. This time the referee went straight to his pocket, issuing a yellow card and a 2 minute sin-bin to the Raymond player. This prompted a few of the other Raymond players to engage in petulant behaviour, which resulted in a red card for one player, and a further sin-binning for one of the Raymond subs - not quite sure what advantage Witton would gain from this!
However, halftime came with the score still at 0 - 0.
Witton kicked off the second half by throwing men forward to take full advantage of their numerical advantage. Perhaps this was a naive tactic as a loose ball deflected off Scott Carter and found it’s way to the pacey Raymond striker. Marshall valianty gave chase, but was unable to make up enough ground to get a tackle in, and the attacker was able to beat Haspell to make it 1 - 0. From this point on Raymond were encamped in their own half, but Witton just couldn’t force the equaliser.
Post was hit, crossbar was hit, keeper made exceptional save after exceptional save. The ball just wouldn’t find the back of the net. It ended 1 - 0 to Raymond.
A dejected and frustrated Witton team left the pitch knowing this was 2 points lost. To make matters worse, KFC won to increase their lead at the top fo the table to 4 points.
However, the performance was guttsy and determined. Witton will play worse and win games - it just wasn’t to be on this occasion.
Witton 0 v Raymond 1
Att 6
Best Moment - Raymond trying to claim that the 6 spectators were Witton subs!
Worst Moment - As a result of the above, Stu Jones had to miss out once again.
