Unfortunate defeat for Ford

Whiteley 3-0 Chandlers Ford Youth

Mid Solent B League – 22nd March 2008

With Whiteley’s pitch unplayable, the game took place at Chandlers Ford’s home pitch, Fleming Park. Both sides wanted to get the game on, so despite it supposed to be an away game for Ford, both managers and players were more than happy to come to the agreement of playing at Chandlers Ford.

In the bitter cold and the swirling wind, not ideal weather for a football match by any stretch of the imagination, it was Ford who took control in the opening stages putting together the best attacks going forward.

Ford had a number of corner kicks throughout the half but were unable to make them count.

Playing three at the back was always going to be a bit of a risk and sure enough Whiteley took full advantage even though they were playing into the wind.

Daryl Winter was caught dallying on the ball at the edge of his penalty area where he robbed of possession by a Whiteley forward who quickly took control of the situation chipping the ball over the head of goalkeeper Liam Godfrey and into an unguarded net for 1-0.

Jake Beattie put in a committed performance at the back with some whole-hearted tackles, in attack Michael Wall did well putting pressure on the Whiteley defence with his closing down but also impressed with his holding up play.

The Blue’s best chances came the way of Daryl whose long shots from range came nearer to hitting the corner flag sadly, through no fault of his own, such was the strength of the wind.

Goal kicks from the Whiteley goalkeeper were just going no where, again getting caught up and swirling back towards the kicker more often than not. Three times such goal kicks went to the feet of Chandlers Ford players, but not once were they able to hit the ball hard enough let alone able to hit the target.

A miss hit shot from Winter actually turned out to be a decent pass to Jozef Montigue who found himself in front of goal with the best opportunity of the half. Taking one touch too many perhaps, the chance went missing and Whiteley were again able to break away against the run of play and end the half two goals to the good despite being at large second best.

HALF TIME: Whiteley 2-0 CFY

Chandlers Ford probably defended better in the second half than they did in the first half when the wind was in their favour! The ball rarely left their own half way line but Ford did not look shaky at all with solid defending just soaking up the pressure consistently.

Michael Wall, who replaced Liam in goal at half time had to make a couple of saves but was never really troubled.

Montigue’s second half performance was excellent as he dug in, realising the need to drop into the midfield and actually ending up at left back more often than not to try and nullify the threat of the opposition instead of standing up front where the ball was simply not getting that far.

Leading by example with his closing down and getting stuck in, others followed including Daryl Winter who stood out in the defence of a back four which Ford changed to at the break in favour of three.

Michael Sawbridge and Josh Harrigan were also impressive commanding any ball into the box with their brave defending, getting their bodies in the way, making the clearances and heading away.

Generally CFY, despite not looking like scoring, were again doing all the hard work and deserved more than the scoreline was showing, as Whiteley aided by the wind, kept coming forward but never getting anywhere.

Eventually as the legs tired a long ball forward saw a Whiteley striker break the offside trap, and despite suspicions of hand ball, play continued as he found the back of the net to effectively put the score beyond doubt at 3-0.

Dan Whitlocke came on towards the end and was unlucky not to have got a penalty kick as he ran half the length of the pitch with not one white shirt able to catch him, that is until he entered the penalty area and was brought down. The referee saw nothing wrong with the challenge and instead awarded Chandlers Ford their first corner kick of the half from what was only the second or third time they were able to break into to the Whiteley half of the field.

It was certainly an improved performance over the last game where Whiteley ran out comfortable 4-0 winners, this time the margin of victory looks similar but it flattered them on the balance of play and Ford can take heart from their spirited display.

FULL TIME: Whiteley 3-0 CFY