Dragons fail to Roar

After such a long lay off the reserves were finally back in action with a home tie against the team they last faced up to almost 11 weeks ago and had the chance to go back to the top of their league before their upcoming top of the table clash vs Saffron Walden.

Wivenhoe were aware that Whitton proved to be a tough opponent last time around and although the scoreline looked flattering it was only individual moments of craft and skill that finally separated the teams on that occasion.

From the off Whitton appeared to be willing to raise the physicality levels higher than the home side and this seemed to put the home side of their patterns of play and some simple and basic mistakes were being made meaning that we couldn't create any real gilt edged chances. Both sides had opportunities to open the scoring and Elliot Ringe was called upon a couple of times whilst at the other end Ollie O'Hare and Ryan Gooch had the best chances to take the lead.

It was however Gooch who did get the first goal of the game as he controlled a ball outside the area and hit a looping shot past the Whitton keeper meaning that at the break the Dragons had a 1-0 lead.

Despite not playing as well as had been hoped we did have the lead and were confident that we could raise the levels and push on.

The second half started much the same as the first with Wivenhoe trying but failing to use the ball as well as they could and Whitton being the more physical of the two teams but also having the occasional threat themselves, however it was Wivenhoe that seemed to created more openings although they were not taken as chances were often wasted with efforts failing to test the keeper (either wide or straight at him). The away sides approach appeared to create a problem for them as one player was deemed by the referee to make a two footed lunging tackle and was shown a straight red card taking the away side down to 10 men with around 65 minutes played.

Instead of being the catalyst that the Dragons had hoped for to go on an win the game more convincingly it seemed to have an adverse effect as Whitton raised their own levels and then went on to score two goals in quick succession as a string of defensive lapses occurred that first allowed the Whitton striker to go through against Ringe and finish off the post and then a failure to intercept the ball on multiple occasions allowed another one on one which was saved but the follow up tapped in to turn the game on its head.

Again chances went begging for the home side although with five minutes remaining sub Lewis Blanchetts run and cross was met by Ollie O'Hare to finish from close range to equalise.
In the final minutes another sub the returning Jimmy Stark almost grabbed a late and dramatic winner with some neat control and a shot from around 25 yards that just clipped the top of the net with the keeper beaten and the final whistle went shortly afterwards.

Once again Whitton had proved to be tough opponents and whilst not one for the football purist to watch they did their job and went home with a point that many (possibly they) didn't expect. From a Wivenhoe point of view it initially felt like two points dropped but looking at the positives we showed character to come back and grab a point which could be important come the end of the season.