Dragon's Misery Continues

A sigh of relief will be evident when the full time whistle blows at Cornard, in what will be Wivenhoe Town Reserves final game of the season. A second half of the season where mistakes made by the boys in blue are punished and those made by the opposition are not.

Wivenhoe began the game brightly pressing the the Walden players quickly, as they did in the second half against Hadleigh on Thursday night. It was Walden who took the lead in fortunate circumstances when Carl Oliver thought the ball was going wide, the ball nestled into the bottom corner.
This provided the Dragons with more ammunition to work hard to win the ball and create chances. Jake Plane seeing plenty of the ball on the left hand side of midfield making the Walden full back work hard.
The possession was equal and it was Saffron Walden who doubled their advantage of the half hour mark. Winning the ball on the half way line they broke down the right hand side and despite getting a hand to the shot Carl Oliver couldn't divert the ball past the post.
This didn't dampen the spirits of the Blues as they continued to get the ball into the feet of Oliver O'Hare, Josh Milburn and Jake Plane. It was Milburn who clawed a goal back, with his head from a corner drilled in by Jamie Baker.

HT- Wivenhoe Town 1-2 Saffron Walden

The second half started badly for Wivenhoe. Josh Milburn, who was victimised for his height throughout the whole first half by the official, was once again wrongly penalised for his strength. His frustration earnt him a rightly deserved red card for foul and abusive language. A red card which could have been avoided, had the right decision not to have given a foul against him been made.
The unfairness Wivenhoe felt, made them work harder. Tackles from Joel Shurvington and Adam Frost in particular coming in harder and firmer.
The future for Wivenhoe Town FC looks bright. Having already seen Tav Seaton, Ollie Sanderson and Chase Westwood provide outstanding performances at the age of 16 it was now the opportunity of Alex Atkinson and Bradley Ager who came on to the field of play with Josh Day on the hour mark. Neither player looked out of place, with Atkinson denying the left sided midfielder on numerous occasions and Ager working hard up front to make things happen.
It was Ager's link up with Oliver O'Hare which almost provided and equaliser. A delicate through ball to O'Hare saw this effort rebound of the post and then gathered by the Walden goalkeeper, who had earlier kicked out at Evan Culmer with no punishment given.
Wivenhoe's misery continued as Walden sealed victory with no more than ten minutes to play. Wivenhoe allowed the Walden player to weave in between the defence and have a shot at goal, which was initially saved by Carl Oliver. The ball wasn't cleared and Walden were able to tuck home to make the the score 3-1.

FT- Wivenhoe Town 1-3 Saffron Walden

Another opposition management team saying how Wivenhoe didn't deserve to loose the game. The benefit for the second string which continues is that they have nothing to loose going into the final games of the season. Having now seen five players still representing the u16's, play for the reserves this season is a small positive for the future of this football club.