West End First                                             1

Keens Park Rangers First                           3

Goals: Woodsy 1, Seamus Leonard 1, Dan Way 1

Man-of-the-Match: Chris Butler

As many will be aware this game was abandoned with just 9 minutes of regular time to play and rather than spend the entire report bleating on about it, I will address it once now. The decision was poor and the referee trying to add a no slide tackling rule to the game is outright bizarre. The reaction of the opposing manager celebrating at the decision just about summed it up. We are yet to find out whether we have been cost 3 points for a second time this year, fingers crossed the league will see sense.

Now, lets talk about what happened in those 81 minutes…

The golds had a change of formation this week to make up for the missing Bruce who was out with an old dancing injury he had sustained whilst practicing the Tango with Seamus in the week. Vic was introduced getting a start on the right hand side whilst the ever present Woodsy was pushed down the middle with Liam.

There is no down-playing it, the conditions effected the game in the open field at West End. It is fair to say however that the pitch was in pretty good nick considering the past couple of weeks and it was mainly the wind that caused the issues.

KPR started on the front foot using the wide men effectively as Danny and Vic made a nuisance of themselves. The highline of the opposition was also allowing Woodsy to make runs in behind and had it not been for wind a couple of chances would have come by.

Eventually the pressure told and after a good run by Vic, who was clattered by an utterly atrocious tackle by the opposing number 5 (both feet off the ground), the ball fell to Seamus who fed the ball to Woodsy who confidentially tucked it home. A good advantage by the referee but an awful decision to not even bring up the awful challenge afterwards.

West End did get more into the game but failed to understand the conditions as they went for the ‘John Smith’ approach by hoofing the ball long and straight out for goal-kicks on most occasions. It must be said that the corners they took with the wind were difficult to deal with, however, the Walrus along with Chris and Jambo were up to the task. Numbers 10 and 8 were trying to play the ball on the deck and they did get their reward as the ball was tidily clipped through by the latter and then a deflected strike ended up beyond the diving Walrus.

It wasn’t long before the golds were back amongst it. Danny was getting into the game beating his man time after time, a deep cross came through toward the opposing centre-half who looked to control the ball with his chest but the ball skipped off the wet pitch and struck the defender on the arm, penalty to KPR. Up stepped the stand-in penalty taker Seamus who struck the ball averagely forcing the keeper to make a save. Luckily for one browed midfielder the ball landed nicely in front of him and he prodded it home on the rebound.

The end of the half came with KPR well on top, the Walrus had spent more time with the ball at his feet than in his hands. A much better performance by KPR compared to the last couple of weeks, although that isn’t saying much.

The second half began and the golds now had to contend with the wind behind them. After a first moments of adjusting to the change in conditions KPR were well on top once again. The opposition recorded only possibly two instances where the ball reached the Walrus’ 18-yard box in the entire half.

The third goal eventually came from a West End goal kick, the wind picked up the aerial ball and the golds won a header in the middle, the bouncing ball came across Danny’s left foot and without hesitation he struck the ball from about 30 yards passed the out of position keeper and into the far corner of empty net.

KPR continued to keep the ball and pressure was constantly on the West End defence. As previously mentioned West End did not offer much in the second half and were out of the game. When the final whistle blew to prematurely end the game both sets of players were surprised and of course the winning side were incensed.

If the golds can keep this form and momentum they can finally start to crawl back up the table.

Keens Parks Rangers is a Guildford, Surrey based football club and we are always looking for new players and sponsorship opportunities. Get in touch with us through our website or our social channels.

 

This match report is sponsored by Broadstreet Cars