Dragons v Fenmen: Three More Points Down The Drain
Wivenhoe Town 0 Wisbech Town 1
Teams:
Wivenhoe Town: 1) Ritchie Robins 2) Ben Lampon 3) Marley Spindler 4) Ryan Brown 5) Tim Dennis 6) Bryan Turner 7)TJ Amass 8) Tom Moore 9) Ray Catchpole 10) Ben Connell 11) Tola Odedoyin. Unused Sub: 14) Jamie Lee Smith
Wisbech Team: 1) Tom Roberts 2) Jon Fairweather (Neal Spafford ) 3) Scott Johnson 4) Paul Cousins 5) Stacey Cartwright 6) Adam Millson ( Ollie Pinner 74) 7) Lewis Thompson ( Anthony Reeve 69) 8) Steven Reid 9) Chris Bacon 10) Denny Escorio 11) Oliver Gale. Unused Sub: 16) Darren Jimson
It was a glorious, sunny, spring afternoon at Broad Lane for the encounter with Wisbech Town but sadly the football did not match the weather conditions. On a dry and hard pitch a scrappy and poor quality match saw Wivenhoe Town lose further ground in their battle against relegation as they failed to recover from conceding an early goal against Wisbech.
The Fenmen started as brightly as the sunshine and dominated the opening moves winning three corners within the first four minutes. The first two corners were hit low to the near post and were easily cleared by Bryan Turner, but the third was a deep one and was met full on by Adam Millson whose unchallenged header went right across the face of the goal and inside the near post.
The Dragons responded with a foray down the right flank from Marley Spindler, but his square ball was then punted inaccurately forward by Tim Dennis and possession was lost. But Wivenhoe came back and on seven minutes a long throw from Tola Odedoyin was cleared behind to give the Dragons their first corner, although this came to nought. The Dragon’s first shot on goal came four minutes later from Tom Moore, but his effort, after good work on the left again from Marley Spindler, was a greater threat to the supporters stood behind the goal than it was to Wisbech’s lead.
The game now settled down into a tedious struggle for the next fifteen minutes as possession was exchanged freely and neither side showed any inclination to play any decent football. On twenty six minutes a brief burst of action around the Wisbech penalty area saw Ray Catchpole control the ball well on the right before sending in a low cross which a Wisbech defender daintily jumped over allowing Tola Odedoyin a possible site of goal if he could get to it before the covering full-back; sadly in all the excitement the referee Mr Goddard ruled that Tola fouled said full-back, who on such a beautiful afternoon was appropriately named Jon Fairweather. Tola did have a shot on goal on the half hour but the ball clipped the heels of a defender and went out for a throw. Tola took the throw, which he hurled powerfully into the box and although Roberts in the Fenmen’s goal fumbled the ball, defenders outnumbered forwards and the ball was cleared.
Two minutes later interplay between Ben Connell and Tom Moore ended with Tom feeding Ben on the edge of the box with his back to goal. Ben flicked the ball up to tee up an overhead kick, but was again crowded out by defenders. With nine minutes to go until half time another long throw form Tola Odedoyin was headed away by Cartwright, but only to the edge of the box where Ray Catchpole was fouled as he went in for the loose ball. TJ Amass took the free kick, but could only curl his shot over the cross bar.
Wisbech had their own free kick outside the penalty area three minutes later which Bacon took, but his shot failed to sizzle and dropped lamely into the arms of Ritchie Robins. There were claims amongst some of the the crowd two minutes later that Tim Dennis had had a shot from thirty five yards but it wasn’t confirmed and the last action of the half in the forty third minute saw Bacon turn thirty yards from goal and again shoot weakly sending the ball bobbling past the post; he didn’t even slice it.
The opening thirteen minutes of the second half belonged to Wisbech as they applied what might loosely be described as pressure to the Dragons’ goal. Ben Lampon conceded a free kick some forty yards from goal which Cartwright took, sending a stinging shot straight at Ritchie Robins who did well to hold the ball, which came at him just above head height. On fifty seven minutes the gloriously named Denny Escorio shot wildly over. Soon afterwards Tola Odedoyin conceded a corner and then Bryan Turner conceded another before Ritchie Robins was forced into making a double save, diving to reach a cross and then getting up to hack the ball away.
Wivenhoe hit back within sixty seconds however and should have equalised. It was Tim Dennis who had by far the Dragons’ best opportunity of the game as he met a TJ Amass free kick with his head, but from barely six yards contrived to send the ball the wrong side of the far post. Wivenhoe seemed to gain heart from this near miss however, and probably shaded the remainder of the game. Just past the hour a punt forward by Tola Odedoyin was chased by a Wisbech defender and Ben Connell who went sprawling, but Mr Goddard was not convinced that he hadn’t just fallen over.
Mr Goddard and his assistants annoyed the crowd on sixty-four minutes when they failed to notice Reid blatantly pat the ball down with his hand in the style of Meadowlark Lemon. Within a minute however the Dragons had won a corner which Tim Dennis met at the far post, but his header went looping over the goal and the stand. Another corner was soon won after Marley Spindler’s cross was headed out by a Wisbech defender. Tom Moore’s resultant kick was also met by a Fenman’s head and the Dragons won yet another corner, but yet again it was a Wisbech player who got to it first.
Wisbech were getting players behind the ball well but there was not much pace in the Dragons’ attacks, so this wasn’t hard to do. Tom Moore was booked with eighteen minutes to go after he launched himself at Bacon, perhaps in an attempt to make him lean, and Mr Goddard had his card out again within a minute as he suddenly realised that deliberate handball was an offence and booked Cartwright accordingly. A minute later Wivenhoe won another free kick on the edge of the penalty area as Ben Connell narrowly avoided having to extract a boot from his ear. TJ Amass struck the direct kick but again lifted it over the stand.
At the other end Wisbech came very close to wrapping the game up on seventy-eight minutes as substitute Pinner hooked the ball over the bar from close range after a free kick on the right had been flicked on to him. Three minutes later Marley Sandler’s driven cross from the right was cleared and two minutes after that the ball fell to Ryan Brown who had come up form the back, but he didn’t have time to adjust his feet enough and could only lift his snap shot over the bar. Wivenhoe were having a spell of pressure as the game drew to a close but Wisbech’s defence was solid as Johnson and then Cartwright cleared a TJ Amass free-kick and then a long throw.
With five minutes remaining Tola Odedoyin received his customary booking after making a rash but painless tackle from behind. With a minute of normal time left Wivenhoe had their last attempt on goal as Ben Connell hit a speculative shot from distance; unfortunately, but also rather amusingly the shot travelled barely a yard before it smacked against the backside of Pinner with a wince- inducing slap that echoed round the ground like a gunshot. It is likely that Pinner stood on the bus all the way back to Wisbech.
The four minutes of added time saw Wivenhoe fail to get forward again and the highlight was an inept attempt from Wisbech at keeping the ball by the corner flag from a free-kick, which lasted all of a second as the receiving player took two touches before conceding a throw whilst under no pressure whatsoever. Whilst the game had not been one of high quality football this little cameo performance plumbed new depths.
This was a game that Wivenhoe did not deserve to win but equally Wisbech played no better and a draw would perhaps have been fair. However, Wisbech were always superior in defence, although this can be attributed in part to their team being physically larger. Once again the game was lost as the result of a single failure to mark properly at a set-piece.