Wirral Wanderers 3-4 FC Village
06/01/07 - League

The Village started the new year with a win but they were made to work hard for it through some resolute play from the home side and some very poor descions from the referee which resulted in 3 bookings and 1 sending off. What a way to start the year, as well as all the cards being dished out the Village were awarded 3 penalties in a match they should have sown up early on, failed to take a commanding lead when they had the chance, let the home side back in and then won with a resounding finish. With no Lee H and no Cottier the visitors were short of defenders and had to play Martin at left back otherwise it was the same squad as usual. Having had to switch venues on Friday evening due to the facilities being unavailable the team were somewhat surprised to find that the pitch at Lingham wasn’t that bad and they kicked off determined to make a good start. They did exactly this and should have been two up in the opening 5 minutes as Booey and then Colin were sent clear but both of them rushed their efforts and that early goal didn’t appear to be coming. However within five minutes that did actually take the lead when Booey broke down the right, beat his defender and crossed for Sweeney to head home. Instead of building on this early lead the Village then let Wirral back in to the game when a slip in defence let in a home forward and as he bore down on goal out came Jay who took him but as the ball flew off towards another home player who slotted home the equaliser the ref took no action. It wasn’t long before the Village had regained their lead as the got the first of three penalties to awarded to them in the game. This one came when a through reached Colin and Sweeney inside the box and as Sweeney jigged his way past a defender he had his feet taken from under him. He duly stepped up and sent the keeper the wrong way for his second of the game to make it 2-1. Soon after Sweeney had a great chance to complete his hat trick when this time Booey cut in from the and was brought down in the area by his defender. Sweeney took the resulting penalty kick but this chose the other way and the goalie guessed right as he dived to his left and parried the shot away. Booey then took another shot which the keeper saved before Gavin fired home only for he ref to give Wirral a free kick for encroachment. Still leading at the interval the Village knew that a quick goal at the start of the second half would surely secure the result and within a couple of minutes Booey crossed from the right for Colin to head home at the far post. The ref however had other ideas and awarded Wirral a free kick for pushing from Colin. Still the village dominated without getting that decisive goal as they created some chances and then a mad 5 minutes midway through the half suddenly saw them chasing the game. Once again the ref played an important part in it all as he waved play on when a long kick sailed over the Village defence but with several Wirral players offside he didn’t give the decision and a forward ran on and crossed and Nic could only knock in to his own net as he ran back to the goal. Within minutes Wirral had grabbed the lead when another forward got the ball on the edge of the area when he seemed to everyone except the ref to be offside and he was allowed to lob home to make it 3-2. The Village now knew they had to dig deep if they wanted to get something out of this game and they attacked in numbers in search of the equaliser. Eventually it came via the penalty spot as in a goalmouth scramble Booey was about to shoot only for him to be fouled. If the ref was going by the rule book then as last man the defender should have gone but no all he did was award the penalty which Colin took and he slotted home for 3-3. Both teams thought they could get the winner now but it was the visitors who did and once again it was surrounded by controversy. Sweeney was played on the left wing when he looked offside but as the ref didn’t blow he ran on in to the box and crossed for the advancing Booey to bundle in at the far post. The Wirral defence appealed in vain as the Village celebrated regaining the lead for the third time. Still the incidents came as firstly the referee when asked by the Village “how long to go?” he said 14 minutes when only a few minutes earlier he had said only 10 minutes were left. Then Sweeney chased a through ball and a defender blatantly got in his way and when he pushed him away the ref got out his red card and sent him off for kicking the player. Sweeney was well annoyed and upset but then came the even more amazing decision when Gavin got entangled in a scuffle with a Wirral defender and as he put his face in to the defenders the ref looked to be getting his card out again only to thankfully talk to him and let him off. Minutes later it was all over and the Village had made it six wins on the trot to retain their 3 point lead at the top of the table.