Audlem AFC Report

Sunday 28th January Up and showered and to a calm, mild day. A million miles away from last Sundays awful weather.

In this calmness I note my first sighting for a while of a pair of buzzards oh so lazily circling over the garden and adjoining fields.. Another quite amazing sight was to see daffodils in full bloom at the corner on Mill Lane, Swanbach. In January!!Never seen that before -- daffodils out alongside the dainty snowdrops we so welcome at this time of year.

Another aside. Where have all the white shelled eggs gone?? Always brown eggs nowadays. A conscious decision? Or what?

Enough of my rambling – To our game.
Off to Faddiley to play there a quarter tie in yet another cup match. In good conditions but on a pitch that slopes at one end quite severely.Faddiley have been our bete noir over the seasons. Will we break this curse- or will we again be a 45 minute team, with great first half and lousy second half.

Pitch here is fair with just the one soggy area at one end. We have 15 players arrive and get kitted up.Referee approves the pitch

FIRST HALF
1100 Off we go. Breeze getting up from the West. It will play a part in the game.Roll on roll off subs allowed in this match. That way all players will get a chance of a run. We lose the toss and are placed in the slope end. Faddilley F C straight at our throats as the attack.

1110.
Corner to FFC. Leads to a silly so soft goal 0-1 What a start!!Yet another corner to the opponents. Wind getting stronger. And noticeably cooler. Sun trying to escape from behind the clouds.. Some blue sky which is uplifting.
Faddiley virtually camped in our half as they pursue goals with good football. Connor in goal pulls of a fine save from a fierce shot.Kev Mort on and Joel Cotterill off. Again Connor save a sure goal with his legs. Pressure on us is unrelenting. A big let off as our goal wide open as FFC shoot wide. Then:

1130
0-2 Such poor defending
1135
0-3!!!Referee-please blow up! And save us!

HALF TIME
Off we go again. Some very tired legs in our 11. Two players had been out at an all night party which does not help at all.Kev Rodgers changes the formation to 4-3-3,to try to stem the flow.

At the start of this match, I was concerned that again we would be a 45 minute team. Good in the first half and fading in the second. How wrong I was as the first half was so poor.
1155
0-4 !!! So, so embarrassing. Toffee off babies as defence ripped apart.Kev Rogers off and Adam Myers on.
1200
0-5 Would you believe it. A shot from 30 yards out -- straight into our goalThis is our worst game of the whole season so far. Andrew Bettely off and Joe Benson onMarcus Bell off and Connor McGowan on. Mark Parker off and Brad Tucker on.Got to try anything at all to seek some comeback.Kev Mort off and Kev Rogers back on. Robbo Gladders off and Kev Mort back on. I get dizzy with all this subbing -- Desperate subbing!
1220
0-6. Words fail me. I am lost. Such awful defence.Such a thrashing. Drained of all emotion.To top it all the sun leaves our sky. The wind -- colder and stronger it gusts. Please referee -- blow up for full time and stop this carnage.
Thankfully he does.A game as the referee say -- a lot one sided.

Next game is here in Audlem on the 11th of February. By which time the playing field will have recovered from the awful day of 21st January

Photo is of Kev Mort, together with Joe Benson, our longest serving and most loyal team member. In the grit and cold, wet and muck of winter football. A true giant of the game- without fear.

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