GAME-ON League: St. John Fisher
On Wednesday 20th November, we made the short walk down to St. John Fisher Primary school to play our first fixture of the GAME-ON league this season. After a warm up and team talk, the players made their way to the pitch ready for the match, the opening 5 minutes were end to end with both teams being able to create chances in front of goal which resulted in some good saves from Mason and the St. John Fisher goalkeeper. As the half went on St. John Fisher started to control the game and created more and more chances which eventually led to the first goal of the game. 1-0 to St. John Fisher. Wyken restarted the game and for a short spell looked like they could score an equalizer with some driving runs forward from Ryan and Archie and a long range effort from Dexter. Coming towards the end of the half, St. John Fisher scored again to make the game 2-0 after some nice attacking play from the St. John Fisher players.
As the half time whistle blew the Wyken players made their way over to Mr. Brown and Mr. Vernon for their half time team talk, both coaches and players agreed that the team needed to take control of the game more and work that little bit harder against a very good opposition. The coaches made some changes to the line-up and the players made their way back onto the pitch ready for the second half.
The second half began and both teams were creating good chances which again led to some great saves by both goalkeepers. Mid way through the half and with Wyken still trailing behind the coaches made some changes to the team and formation with resulted in Wyken becoming dominant in the final 10 minutes. Wyken created chance after chance with players bombing forward to support the attack and after several goal mouth scrambles the ball finally made its way into the St. John Fisher net with a good finish from Zach. The game restarted and Wyken again were dominant with some good efforts from Ben and Ryan and if not from some good saves by the St. John Fisher goalkeeper and some great blocks from the St. John Fisher defenders the game could of easily been 2-2. Wyken kept pressing and getting attempts on goal again with some good goalkeeping and defending from the opponent’s players, Wyken had several corners in the last couple of minutes of the game and as instructed by the Wyken coaches all outfield players found themselves in the St. John Fisher box and after several goal mouth scrambles the ball broke twice to the St. John Fisher attackers this led to the Wyken goal being under threat and if not for Zach’s blistering pace and last ditch tackles could of seen Wyken fall further behind. The final whistle was blown by the referee and after a very enjoyable game the score finished 2-1 to St. John Fisher.
After shaking all the players hands and thanking the referee the Wyken players made their way over to Mr. Brown and Mr. Vernon who were delighted by the second half performance and were impressed by the effort and hard work the team put in towards the end of the game and were unlucky not to get an equalizer by the end of the game. The Wyken coaches voted Zach as the Man of the Match but gave honorable mentions to Louie for his great defending throughout the game and also to Arjun and Zaid who came into the team and impressed. Overall, a very enjoyable but tough game between two good teams with both teams showing incredible resilience and respect throughout the game.
