Black Horse Wallasey 5-5 FC Village
09/09/06 - League

A ten goal thriller, three bookings and a goal scored from the half way line. All back to normal then as the Village played their first away game of the season. With the derby on TV there was a chance that they would be short of players but not through staying in the pub as Dava and Jay were working and Lee H was unavailable. Then a couple of phones call’s when they arrived at the ground saw the signing on of both Ritchie and Cottier. The match had already kicked off by the time Ritchie got there, so he made it eleven each and Cottier grabbed the subs shirt when he arrived. In a match that swung one way and then the other throughout the whole 90 minutes it was the Village who had the first openings but a misplaced pass and a defender not getting out quick enough saw the Black Horse Wallasey open the scoring after about 10 minutes. Straight from the kick off the Village got the ball down the right and Sweeney crossed for Colin and a defender to bundle in the equaliser from close range. Within minutes the visitors were ahead as Sweeney broke free; saw his first effort saved by the keeper but he was on hand to smash in the rebound for his first of the season. Then some five minutes later the Village extended their lead with what could turn out to be their goal of the season already. Jimmy went for a 50-50 ball just inside his own half and somehow hooked the ball over his shoulder and it sailed the length of the pitch, over the stranded keepers head and in to the net. Soon after came the turning point in the game as the Village made the move of the match when Ritchie sent Sweeney on his way down the right and his cross met Colin at the far post but his header crashed off the bar. Had that gone in it would have made it 4-1 and the game would probably been out of reach for the home side but just as suddenly they were back in it. Despite looking somewhat offside a Wallasey forward fired home to reduce the arrears and then just before half time they equalised all thanks to the ref. The ball went out of play on the Village goal line but a forward kicked it back in to play and with the Village lads appealing for a goal kick the ref ignored their pleas and let Wallasey play on and score to make it 3-3. So instead of looking comfortable the Village now had to start all over again and their play at the start of the second half seemed to suffer because of this as they were all over the place. This allowed Wallasey to take over but once again it was down to the ref to give them the lead. They had taken a throw in but with Booey down injured they kicked the ball out to allow treatment to him. On the restart Colin went to throw the ball to a Wallasey player but the ref told them to take their own throw. From the throw Lee W missed the ball and a forward ran on to put the home back in the lead. It wasn’t long before they had made it 5-3 and the Village looked down and out. Cottier replaced Jimmy with Booey moving out to the right and the Village started to get back in to it but when Muzza hit the bar from 25 yards out it looked as though it wasn’t going to be their day. Finally with less than ten minutes remaining Booey collected the ball in midfield, ran towards goal and as the home defence stood off him he toe poked the ball home from just inside the area to make it 4-5. They now believed they could save this game and surged forward for the equaliser. A free kick was played in to the box and it reached Colin who saw his shot blocked on the line but he quickly hammered home the rebound and they had done it. Straight from the restart they got the ball back down to the Wallasey goal and M.O.M. Colin just fired over the bar. Seconds later it was all over and they had salvaged a hard earned point that could so easily have been two had that shot not hit the woodwork in the first half.