Match Report

Derby Ams (2) v Woolley Moor United (1)

Date: 15/08/07
Team: 1sts
Match Type: League
Venue: Home
Opposition: Woolley Moor United

Let me set the scene. Cool day, the smell of freshly cut grass, light moisture in the air and on the surface, perfect for a footballing spectacle.

And that's exactly what we didn't deliver. The first 15 minutes were Scooby's nephew (scrappy), no real football was played, very few passes made their intended target, and when they did most were met with the first touch of a brick wall.

We really needed our captain to rally us into upping our game, raise the morale, up the tempo, so when he limped off two minutes later after suffering a horrendously soft challenge the vice captain Adam Morris started to take control of the game with calming touches and general good play. With Grant Strickson being asked to play an unfamiliar role in midfield and Singo (Andrew Singleton) coming back from a long injury it was working surprisingly well and soon started to dictate play with Adam Morris forcing their keeper to scurry towards his own goal from the best part of 45 yards only to see his effort blaze over the bar by inches.

Later came the chance for our keeper to shine after a Woolley Moor midfielder spanked a shot, which was destined for the bottom corner, let me stop you at this moment in time, before the ball had even reached the goal line it had a few Woolley Moor players celebrating and one actually shouting 'good goal'. Imagine their disappointment when they saw our keeper expertly diving to his right to deny a goal with two hands, too fierce to hold on to, but with experience and agility on his side managed to push the ball wide and not even conceding a corner kept the ball in play for Derbyshire to clear.

Half time came, and the message was we needed to talk more with the pitch being likened to a mortuary, with only an eerie few voices being heard at any one time.

With the score still at 0 - 0, we knew that we had to improve, and improve we did. Flowing football followed and within ten minutes of the restart we had gone 1 up. The ball had worked its way out to our right-winger Twedds (Dave Tweddle), give this boy time and he will punish you with deadly crosses. He fired in a diagonal ball behind the defence but too far from the keeper, for James Whittaker to pass the ball back to Grant Strickson, composed Grant bent the ball into the bottom corner passed a helpless keeper (when I say bent, he kicked the ball that soft it was going in a straight line only for the earth to rotate and a goal was scored).

After the restart, we made substitutions that were forced upon us. This obviously unsettled us as shortly after they had equalised in pretty much the same fashion that we had scored in, ball bent into the bottom corner, keeper no chance. This rallied Woolley Moor and we had a game on our hands.

It was pretty much end-to-end stuff from here on in, with chances being created at both ends of the pitch, including an excruciatingly close effort on our goal by our own goal scorer Grant Strickson. The corner came in and Grant tried to clear with a 50pence head and arched the header inches over and wide for which he looked far calmer than he later confessed he was.

The final breakthrough came from a fine bit of individual play including a shimmy, turn and inch perfect cross by our newly introduced Kelvin Rampton for which James Whittaker made the most of with a speculative diving header putting the ball firmly, but securely under the crossbar restoring our one goal cushion.

A tense ten minutes followed but without much cause for concern, a few deep balls came in but were dealt with by defenders or keeper comfortably.

A good all round game by Derby Ams then, but with room to improve especially in the communication department. Good points to take away from the game are that our work rate was high throughout, really good performances from the substitutes as it is never easy to come into a game half way through and we even had four fans who came down to watch (I saw a mini Mexican wave at one point!)

Credit to Woolley Moore though, after last season's set back in finishing last in the league, they are a club in transition with, what appeared to be, a few new players and a decent attitude on and off the pitch (they actually stayed in the pub longer than we did) and should finish much higher this season if they continue to improve.

Man of the Match - Richard Swain - Comforting presence at the back, great communication, dictated play and worked hard.

BONK of the match - Adam Morris - How many people can over hit a shot from just inside our half, but four or five times! I mean come on fella????

Also a big thank you to 'The Chequers Inn' in Breaston for the food that was displayed in the pub afterwards, much appreciated and needed!!!

Man of the Match: Richard Swain

Article by: Adam Blackburn