September 22nd 2007
Llandudno Junction Reserves v Wepre Rangers.

After a mixed start to the season and the loss to Llandudno the last two Saturdays without a game have been so frustrating. I now know what Jose must feel like when he goes shopping for grade A eggs and he can only find cracked ones. Two Saturdays without a game through September has been a nightmare, even the First team were without fixtures so the lads had to occupy themselves, the only good thing out of this was Chris Darbey and Sion Watson were both able to recover from their injuries, also Tom Easton was able to train for the first time since the pre season game against Pen so this week the squad was as follows: -

Mike Hughes
Chris Darbey, Phil Williams 1, Scott Jones, Sion Watson,
Chris Lloyd, Nathan Watson 1 MOM ©, Danny Parry 2, James Hobson 1
Bobby Colville 1 and Matt Hughes 1

Ashley Jones on Bobby Colville
Danny Jones on for Chris Lloyd
Ross Stevens on for Nathan Watson
Unused subs Tom Easton and Karl Davies.

The conditions were fantastic for our style of play and we were looking forward to see how the boys would come back from our defeat against Llandudno, which seems an age ago. The lads immediately went on the attack and forced a corner in the opening minutes; Hobbo struck the corner but was defended well by Wepre. The lads were going about their jobs in a very good manner and played some good football, which was how we started against Town. In the 9th Minute Wepre had their first chance, which was a speculative shot, which Mike collected easily. This was dispatched to Darbey who took the ball under control and attacked down the left hand side of the pitch and with a quick one two with Lloydy, Darbey found himself in Wepre’s last third and was only stopped by the steady full back of Wepre. Things were looking rosy and everything was positive and we thought we would open the scoring when Darbey hooked the ball clear to find Lloydy in acres of space, who controlled the ball first time, took it out of his feet and crossed to Nathan, but Nathan failed to find the target. The football from us was always on the forward foot but Wepre were frustrating the lads by putting bodies behind the ball and defending as if their lives depended on it, in the 16th minute we had another corner which Lloydy crossed to find Phil who had a free header but the chance went begging. Although we had attacked very well we couldn’t break Wepre down and in the 28th minute Nathan was caught offside, and from the resulting free kick Wepre broke and their captain Craig Brierley smashed the ball home leaving the lads gutted. Gradually throughout the half Craig had slowly got into the game and the goal had given him the lift to raise his game further and now he was pulling the strings and in the 34th minute Wepre were awarded a penalty which Craig again stepped up and slotted home to make it two – nil to Wepre. The lads rallied and played some good football, which resulted in another corner, this time Hobbo, found Phil but once again the header went over. Was this going to be one of those days? In true LL31 style we got our answer Phil broke up a Wepre attack, then found himself running forward with the ball, he weaved passed one then two and ended up on the left hand side of the pitch and with a little jink inside and with the power and precision of Tiger Woods found the postage stamp and no I don’t mean the one in Glan Conwy the top right hand corner of Wepre’s goal, just what the Doctor ordered after going down by two goals. This had the lads tails up and gave them the belief to go and take the game to Wepre and with some good passing from Darbey and Dan it wasn’t long before we had found the net again through a strike from our captain Nathan which gave us a 2 a piece score line at half time.

For the first time this season we had to make our feelings clear, that wasn’t the performance the fans want to stand in the pissing rain to come and watch and we could certainly do better. The positives were there for all to see we just needed to improve and do our jobs properly. Peter discussed a few things with the lads and we made it clear we had to stop their number 7 from playing as he was their best player and when we stop him we stop them, simple. The lads went out for the second half with one thing on their minds and that was to get a good result and show the fans what was possible from the team. In no time at all we were back on the attack but Bobby’s effort was tame and Wepre’s keeper collected easily and this was the theme for the next few attacks but this time we were breaking Wepre down and getting better chances. Sion played the ball to Matt who was very unlucky not to score, and all what we are capable of was now on show and was much more pleasant on the eye. It wasn’t all our way though, Wepre did get through and in the 51st minute Wepre had a shot which Mike had to save. With Sion back in the team we had lots of energy along with Darbey on the left, and most of our attacks started from one or the other. In the 53rd minute Sion took a quick throw in to Hobbo who crossed into the box but no one could get on the end of it, a minute later however Matt broke forward turning his marker well as he went towards goal lost control slightly which gave their keeper a chance to clear but he could only hit Matt’s shins and the ball bobbled home 3 – 2, at last the lead. Instantly Wepre went on the attack and failed with a shot from their number 8, we had possession of the football and created some good passing movements which resulted in Wepre’s number 6 getting frustrated and dived in and gave us a free kick, Hobbo crossed to Darbey who fired into the box and Bobby slotted home or did he? With a score line of 4-2 this was a chance to kick on and enjoy the rest of the game, again we gained possession and Nathan surged into the box and was crudely brought down which the referee had no option but to give a pen, after some debate between Scott and Dan who was to take it Scott gave the ball to Dan who calmly slotted home to make it 5-2. Again Wepre went forward and this time we conceded a free kick which they put wide, Mike found Hobbo with a perfect goal kick, which Hobbo collected and danced his way through the Wepre’s midfield with some delightful skill, then released Matt again who was denied another goal scoring opportunity by a determined Wepre defender. We were now in total control of the game and were enjoying the possession which gave us the chance to express our selves and after some very good football Matt was awarded our second pen of the game which once again Dan put away, 6-2, however this time it wasn’t put away as good as the first. With 15 minutes left we decided to make some changes, Nathan took a knock so on came Ross for his first appearance of the season and AJ came on for the very impressive Bobby, who came off with his customary moan but he had a smile on his face which was very pleasing to see. Wepre’s number 7 still tried to drag his team forward and had a chance which Mike saved easily and then he sprayed the ball out wide which created another chance for Wepre but again they found Mike in good form.
Then in the 87th minute Danny Jones who had been introduced for the final 10 minutes found himself clear of the Wepre’s defence with only the keeper to beat but slipped and slid to his knees and lost his chance. The scoring was wrapped up by the very skilful James Hobson who rifled in a low shot, which beat the keeper and the despairing Wepre defence. After a poor first half, were there was ‘only one team in it’ sadly for us that was WEPRE! We got ourselves motivated and played some very good stuff, next lesson is not to concede and win games the easy way. I must ask Darbey where he put my copy of Clean Sheets by George Graham as he and the lads must be reading The Top Quickest Goals volume 10 by Annette Bulging.

Again with reference to the Great egg man himself, all the Kings’ horses and all the Kings’ men couldn’t put Humpty together again only yoking, I for one will miss Jose and his comments. Next fixture will be this Saturday at St Asaph in the cup with a 14.30 kick off we hope to see you all there cheering on the boys, thanks for your support last Saturday it really spurred the lads on in the second half.