FC Village 1-2 Wirral LFC
28/04/07 - League

The Village crashed to a surprising defeat to lowly Wirral LFC with a well below par performance that was a typical end of season affair. Things started to go wrong on the Thursday when the side found out that both Booey and Leigh would be missing due to work on the Saturday and then Ritchie wasn’t going to make it either so the heart of the midfield would be missing. Come Saturday and they thought they had the bare 11 but when Les failed to show they had to kick off with ten men whilst John got some boots and a kit on. The side probably played their best football of the game during the period when they were down a man as they scored inside 3 minutes and could have added a couple of more goals. The goal came when a long through ball was headed back towards his own goal by a Wirral defender but he hadn’t seen Colin who neatly flicked it over the keeper and in to the far corner of the goal. Almost immediately the side could have doubled their lead which probably would have meant they would have gone on to win the game. First off Sweeney saw his free kick smash against the bar and from the rebound Dava’s shot whistled past the post. Soon after the ball was cleared to the edge of the box where Mike volleyed just over the bar and then Colin went close with another effort. By this time the Village were back up to full strength but for some reason this seemed to stop them dominating the match. Wirral slowly started to make inroads on the home goal and Jay had to make a couple of smart saves. However from the second of these the ball wasn’t cleared by the Village defence and a Wirral forward was on hand to fire home the equaliser. A couple of half chances came at both ends but the sides were still level at the interval. With no subs available the Village knew they just had to get on with it and they did without really troubling the Wirral keeper. They had most of the play but the final cross or shot just wasn’t good enough on the day and with the defence seemingly containing the visitors attack with relative ease it looked as though the game would drift out to a draw. The Village only really had half chances as Sweeney, Colin, Jason, Mike and even John all failed to make the most of the openings they did create and then disaster struck in the final minutes. Another long ball sailed over the Village back line but the ref didn’t give the off side it certainly looked and the young Wirral forward ran on and smartly tucked his shot past Jay for a surprise winner. The Village then came very close to snatching an equaliser when Martin made a dazzling run down the wing and beat several players but saw his cross come shot hacked off the line to safety. Seconds later it was all over and the players came off the field somewhat dejected but it was a just a case of a bad day at the office and these things happen sometimes.