Under 13's. Tameside & District League. Division 1.
Home v Wythenshawe Town

  Result - Reddish North End 2 Wythenshawe Town 6

Match Report: James Emmerson

In the end a repeat of the scoreline of our first meeting this season, but it was a very different game from that early season encounter. On this occasion Reddish played much more brightly and were in the game for long periods, but a couple of silly errors really hurt us, as well as some of our older failings resurfacing at times.

With both sides having no league fixture again (we’ve only had 5 league games since December 12^th) I felt it was a good opportunity to set the boys a test against one of the division’s best sides. With the rain falling steadily for most of the morning, but thankfully no real wind and a mild temperature, Reddish started off okay before conceding too much possession. Wythenshawe looked dangerous and a sloppy bit of defending, including Jake stopping for a whistle which came from another game up on Whitehill, led to them going ahead despite Callum’s best efforts in almost palming the shot wide.

However, I was pleased with the boys’ response, and the shape of the team started to gel. We got back level after Wythenshawe got themselves in a muddle, a defender and goalie leaving the ball to each other, and Sam bravely nicked in to win the ball for Callum to smack into an empty goal. Wythenshawe hit a post while Reddish had two great chances which they couldn’t take.

I was delighted to get to half time at 1-1 but I’m not sure I did the best job preparing the team for the second half. Jake had to come off as he wasn’t 100%, but we didn’t really organise ourselves to deal with the big Wythenshawe forward who came on after the interval. In the end we didn’t deal with his pace and strength, and although he only scored once we made life very hard for ourselves by not covering the defence and coping with his runs better.

Wythenshawe’s second goal, a breakaway, was offside, but the third which followed quickly after was a really poor defensive effort from us. But, again, the boys rallied, and a big clearance from Callum bounced nicely for Sam who lobbed the goalie for 2-3. A few moments later an almost identical chance saw a desperate save from their keeper, and although we had quite a few more shots at goal, nothing really stretched the goalie. Wythenshawe made us pay again, and a combination of some hesitancy and poor marking saw the visitors comfortably ahead at the end.

All in all I’m pleased that we took on the challenge – I would have given us 9 out of 10 for the first half, 4 out of 10 for the second – but it was disappointing being within a whisker of 3-3 and then ending up with that scoreline. But all we can do now is learn from the experience, and improve for our next game. Only one of our last two league games has been scheduled (a week on Monday) so I will be sorting another friendly next Saturday which will be an opportunity for the boys to bounce back.

Scorers : Callum B (1) Sam (1)