WOLLATON FC 4-1 SOUTHWELL CITY: THE MATCH REPORT...

Wollo In No Mood To Dispense Christmas Spirit, As Southwell Capitulate

Wollaton FC 4-1 Southwell City

This match ended in a well deserved victory for the hosts, who came from a goal behind to their high flying guests and dished out a seasonal thumping. I had been kindly welcomed by the Wollo folks, following my trek north from Solihull with a view to providing a service, including video highlights, images and a full match report. I needed to purchase two match programmes though, one for myself and one for the programme editor at Tiverton Town (don’t ask…) However, I was then charged for my admission, which included one programme free and I was subsequently asked for £5 and given a third programme I really didn’t want… Confused? Yes, I was. No worries though, for Wollo made the visit worthwhile, even though City disappointed somewhat, despite starting the game well and missing several chances on a bit of a pudding of a pitch which actually survived the encounter in decent condition. Players did lose their footing on occasions but it seemed that Wollowing in the mud was something the home team particularly liked to do…

STEVENSON: "GOOD OF YOU TO COME, LINO..."

LOOKING LIKE THOSE CAST IRON ANTONY GORMLEY STATUES ON CROSBY BEACH, SOUTHWELL WARM UP...

HARRISON PARACHUTES IN.
THEN REALISES HE HAS NO ACTUAL PARACHUTE...

Weak finishing early on was forgotten by Southwell when striker Ben Selby netted stylishly but Wollo were later gifted a penalty through visiting goalie Ryan Fletcher’s unusual challenge on big home forward Steve Chaplin, although Ant Brown was also culpable for messing up an offensive free-kick 20 yards from the home goal in the build-up to the penalty incident. The excellent Wollaton skipper Josh Stevenson dispatched the spot-kick and almost immediately midfielder Tom Harrison poached a second goal to leave City reeling before the interval. A third goal, hooked in splendidly by the wholehearted Reece Strode, who was later binned as a sinner for ten minutes, basically killed Southwell, for their efforts to regain a foothold in the contest proved as wasteful as they were desperate. In the closing moments, Wollo replacement Dan Chadwick got clear to settle the game for good and Southwell had little to cheer about as they headed for their Christmas ‘do’… Maybe they needed to don their daft party costumes to forget the afternoon’s activities in their salmon pink playing apparel… 

OFF WE GO...

THE CITY DEFENCE: BARTLE, BROWN, NEWTON & GLEESON...

So, the rather quiet City skipper Brad Peace-McDonald made a very early run into the Wollo penalty-box but miscued from a left-wing centre, allowing home ‘keeper Patrikios Andreou to field the ball like he was helping an old chap to pick up his shopping bag. Ah yes, Andreou… I saw him after the game removing his boots I think, sitting on the sodden turf and I asked him if he wanted me to hit a few shots at him before he got changed because he had had so little to do. It was only then that I realised from his accent that he wasn’t actually Patrik Andrew, which was how I had interpreted his name from the hand-written team-sheet but that his name was actually Patrikios Andreou… Oops… 

PEACE-MCDONALD (8): NO LUCK ON THE DAY...

Andreou must have been surprised that Ant Newton’s falling header from a Will Stocks free-kick was easy to catch too, then another Newton header from a Stocks corner flew way too high, before a fine run to the left byeline by Selby ended with a low delivery across the face of goal which was well hacked clear by Wollo left-back Kyle Crofts. Sprightly left-sided attacker George Caudwell did cut in once from the left but his ensuing low drive was clutched low on his goal-line by the falling Andreou. Wollaton? Well, Chaplin had bounded clear at inside-right but Fletcher had advanced to save easily but it was the visitors who struck first with that fine effort by Selby. He exchanged passes with Caudwell to his left and was released into the left side of the 18 yard box, shooting with the outside of his left shoe from 14 yards, an effort which beat the diving Andreou.

0-1...

GOAL FOR SELBY...

However, out of nothing really, the hosts regained parity after a free-kick had been awarded to the guests just 20 yards out. Somehow, Brown pushed the ball forwards but straight to an opponent, who cleared it and the hosts were on the counter-attack. When Rhys Powell’s clipped pass into the penalty-area led to Fletcher attempting to dispossess Chaplin with a flailing boot around the upper thigh area, he only succeeded in hampering the Wollo man and the referee had little alternative but to award a 12 yard free-hit. Stevenson, the robust, intense, immovable leader of his team, scored easily from the spot. Oddly, immediately afterwards, right-flanker Greg Wedge drew two Southwell defenders to inside-right, whilst Harrison was strangely and unusually not attended by Tom Robinson and hovering to Wedge’s left. This meant a simple chance for the midfielder to convert from 15 yards when his colleague’s pass found him unmarked.  

A WORD OR TWO FOR BROWN & PEACE-MCDONALD...

STEVENSON: "NO NEED TO F..KIN' HIT HIM, REF..."

SKIPPER STEVENSON HAS EQUALISED...

HARRISON IS HUGGED BY CROFTS...

...BECAUSE IT'S 2-1 NOW...

There were no other goal chances pre-interval, as City looked shaken and in truth seemed to lack cohesiveness, rarely able to get wingers Oli Clarke or Caudwell into the game in any meaningful ways and their delivery of crosses, especially from deep on the right, was often slack. Indeed, Caudwell was involved in a fierce contest with Wollo’s Powell, who received a caution before the players trooped off for Ribena and muffins. The real surprise of this game was that after the break, Wollaton were able to threaten the visiting goal more often and with more danger than their opponents, who were lying second in the league table before this match began late at ten minutes past one, due to the tardy arrival of the two linesmen… 

ANOTHER ANNOYING HOLD UP...

THE INTERVAL...

MAN, THAT CHAPLIN IS SO DAMNED COOL...

AN ATTEMPT TO BREAK AN OPPONENT'S PATELLA...

The only real threat to the home team came from shots from downtown: Peace-McDonald drove too high from Selby’s cut-back, then saw another effort deflected for a left-side corner. Newton raced forward but shot wide from 23 yards, Selby hit a rising shot way off target then with a lunge forth, was unable to reach Newton’s header and divert it goalwards. A late header over the crossbar by replacement Ash Dixon was just about typical of Southwell’s disappointing offense, missing of course their leading goalscorer Calum Law. The hosts though scored a third goal after the recess, when a heading duel between Stevenson and Newton sent the ball towards the edge of the 18 yard box, whereupon Strode strode forth one step and hooked a left-boot volley over the stretching Fletcher and the ball dropped neatly into the right side of the net, with all the sweetness of a three-pointer by the LA Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard…  

3-1: STRODE HAS SCORED...

EVANS IS CAUTIONED...

STEVENSON & NEWBOLD ARE FASCINATED BY THE REF'S COLLECTION OF HUNGARIAN STAMPS... 

Chaplin had already been tackled well by City’s gutsy left-back Dan Gleeson as he bundled towards the visitors’ 18 yard line and he later rapped a decent volley right to left and across the goalmouth, following a fine pass by Stevenson. Harrison shot wildly over the target from an angle and the industrious home midfielder Joe Evans was yellow-carded, before the hurrying City offense was thwarted several times by the heading of Stevenson and the challenges both aerially and on the ground of central defender Greg Newbold… Eventually, with time slipping away and the light waning a little, home substitute Ryan Martt slipped the energetic and speedy Chadwick clear through the middle and the Wollo man took the ball past the advancing Fletcher and side-footed it smartly into the empty net to complete the scoring.

GOAL FOR CHADWICK WITH THE AMBER FOOTWEAR...

Tom Slade had been really effective in defence and attack for Wollaton and he might have notched a well deserved goal in the dying seconds, getting clear on the right but he managed only to nudge the ball past the near stick, as Fletcher closed him down and Gleeson harassed him from behind. 

STEVENSON: A FINE MATCH...

NEWBOLD QUITE LIKES HIS HEAD BEING SCRATCHED BY A PASSING TREE...

And that was that… This had been a fine team effort by Wollo, although in truth Stevenson and Newbold were outstanding, leading Evans, Chaplin and company to raise their games, which all of the home players did. City had been abject and quite poor after their bright opening and didn’t recover from that two-goal salvo before half-time. A bad day for them, despite Brown’s promptings at the back…

Me? I drove back to Solihull, wondering what the heck I would do with that third programme and whether Slade would have a merry Christmas…

TEAMS:

WOLLATON FC:

PATRIKIOS ANDREOU, RHYS POWELL, KYLE CROFTS, JOE EVANS, GREG NEWBOLD, REECE STRODE, GREG WEDGE, TOM HARRISON, JOSH STEVENSON (CAPT), STEVE CHAPLIN, TOM SLADE.

SUBS:

WILL BOUWEN, DAN CHADWICK, RYAN MARTT, RICH BRADLEY, SCOTT CARLILE.

SOUTHWELL CITY:

RYAN FLETCHER, SAM BARTLE, DAN GLEESON, TOM ROBINSON, ANT BROWN, ANT NEWTON, OLI CLARKE, BRAD PEACE-MCDONALD, BEN SELBY, WILL STOCKS, GEORGE CAUDWELL.

SUBS:

BLAIR BRYANT, ASH DIXON, STEVE VENABLES.