Wickham Wanderers Under 8's Match Report 19-Oct-2003

Without Jordan and Jack who were both ill, the Wickham defensive cover looked weak for the visit of Thatcham Tornadoes. William was the planned cover for Blake with Josh to help out as well. Fortunately everything went to plan.

Wickham started brightly, but it was a clearance out of defence which set William away to open the scoring for the home side. Wickham dominated, but the long kicks from the Tornadoes keeper caused constant problems. One of these cleared Wickham’s defenders and saw two attackers bearing down on Ben in goal. They took the chance well which made the half time score 1-1. The side was changed around with William dropping back into defence. Early in the second half a corner from Aiden struck the near post and returned to him down the line where he laid it back to Josh who cracked in a shot from the edge of the area for 2-1. Straight from the centre Josh won the ball and went off down the right. He drew the defenders across to him and laid off a pass to William to easily make it 3-1. Wickham now dominated and a fourth was added by Aiden following a quick throw from Blake. A fifth followed late in the game when Ben’s clearance was helped on by William, which put Josh through to score his second making the final score 5-1

Ben Grey, Blake Clark, William Herrington, Josh Way, Declan Hess
Subs:- Neal Edwards, Thomas Inch, Aiden Weeks

The score in the second match flattered Wickham a little as every chance seemed to go in. An early throw-in by William sent Josh away. By the time he cut inside both William and Aiden were in the middle unmarked, but Josh ignored them to score from an acute angle. Like last week Ben had an attempt at scoring himself, but this time Aiden got control of the ball and was able to slip it underneath the keeper. Aiden then added his second as he broke though, this time lashing the ball into the roof of the net. The players were changed around at this point with William dropping back into defence, but this did not stop him from making a challenge in defence then going all the way down the field to score. The final action of the half saw Neal go down the wing and cross the ball to Josh who made it 5-0. Ian just asked the guys to keep the effort going whilst making sure that Neal Thomas and Declan got plenty of time on the field. William however took advance of a positional swap with Josh who took over in defence. Within the first five minutes of the half William had scored four more goals using his pace to go past the Thatcham defence before striking the ball in from close range. He was then taken off to be replaced by Aiden who duly completed his hat-trick and the scoring for Wickham as they ran out 10-0 winners.

Voting this week for Player of the Day was close, but due to good work both on and off the ball - and for his unselfish play - Aiden won the award.

Ben Grey, Blake Clark, William Herrington, Josh Way, Aiden Weeks
Subs:- Neal Edwards, Thomas Inch, Declan Hess