by Nick Syrett

With more precipitation falling than from a big lad in a Bikram Yoga class, Hardly Farm was once again spared the ravages of youth upon its hallowed blades of grass. Fixtures were culled left, right and centre again as our curator once again had the freedom of the plains to coach his young “Mighty Duckz Bogz snorkelling platoon”.  Interested followers will be pleased to learn that his largely unfancied, inner city outfit won their first competitive county cup match, and will travel to the Lancashire pennines next week if the steady rainfall persists to take on a well established Darwin team. 

Meanwhile… in the fixtures that survived the deluge this week…

WD&C Hawks U9s 3-9 Broadheath Spartak

Bertie E (2), Lucien

Spartak took home the spoils in a game that was closer than the score suggests.

With Hardy Farm under water, the game was switched to a boggy Chorlton Park where the conditions made it difficult for the Hawks to play their normal passing game. The Hawks dominated the early stages with Ben and Bertie E running wild down the left flank. The Spartak goal led a charmed life as shots were blocked, saved or went just wide before Sam was forced off, unable to breathe, which makes playing football difficult.

Luca B claimed several loose balls with some spectacular dives before Spartak went ahead as Hawks found it hard to pass the ball out of defence. Bertie E reduced the arrears before Spartak took control with some ruthless finishing even though Joe pulled off some great blocks.

In truth the game was pretty even. The little magician Bertie E bamboozled the keeper with a deft lob. Then Lucien burst through and smashed the ball into the bottom corner. By now Luca G and Bertie C were off the pitch in the advanced stages of hypothermia but Hawks kept going. Mars Bar Man of the Match Rudy was prowling down the left wing on his debut but Hawks just couldn’t find the net, Ollie going close on several occasions.

In the closing minutes, Noah’s feet turned blue with cold (or was that just the colour of his boots) even though he first tamed a wild dog and then saved a penalty.

Well done to the parents for risking trench foot as they supported the boys.

Timperley Lokomotiv 5 v 5 WD&C U9 Harriers. It was a blur of a game from start to finish. With a limited squad of seven and one of them presenting without shin pads or boots, one with a fever, and one flying out of the car straight on to the pitch the kick off felt like a bad dream. The otherworldliness of the match didn’t abate as the scoreboard ticked over: 1-0,1-1,1-2,2-2,3-2, 4-2,4-3,4-4,5-4,5-5. Lucas got a brace with a lovely placed finish one on one with the goalkeeper. Tyler and Theo’s industrious performances were rewarded with a goal each and Ruben also repaid the managers faith in him as a striker with a goal. Max P and Vaughn gave all they could given their restrictions and Max H had a standout performance both in the outfield and in the goal where he was leaping around like billy the fish and running up to receive a corner in the final minute. Who needs order when chaos is so much fun!

U10 Eagles v Sale sporting jaguars (h)

League game

Won 5-3

PoM Fionn 

Scorers: Yuri, Sacha, Jake,  Nico mikki 

Different team talk this week as we were 4-0 up@ HT!! Played well and a good game

After being down 5-0 in the first period away against @mobberleyfc our U10  Kestrels knuckled down and came back strong to go down 12-8.  Still a loss but an epic turn around, really proud of the boys. Scorers: 9-Jude (4) 6-Lucas (2) 15-Gustaf & 1 OG from Mobberley

Coaches POM 12-Fred

U10 Owls lost 5-1 away to Broadheath Spartans. Oscar Magee scored our only goal. Our player of the match was Frankie Pennington due to some sublime saves as keeper.

U12 v Hale United Sao Paulo (h)

LOST 2-4

Goals:

Wilf Clewlow

Isaac Marshall

POTM Wilf 

A week after a 7-2 defeat to the same opposition, West were looking to gain revenge against Hale Utd Sao Paolo as the Winter Cup kicked off.

Could the privileged young stars of Hale really do it on a cold, muddy morning in Chorlton Park? Unfortunately the answer was yes.

But this was a vastly improved West performance. Fired up by the coaches, West started on the front foot. Early on Isaac robbed a Hale defender near the corner flag and crossed to an unmarked Ted who saw his volley brilliantly tipped onto the post by the visiting keeper.

Although Alfie was called into action to save bravely at the feet of a Hale attacker, West were controlling the game. But an innocuous challenge in the box gave Hale the opportunity to take the lead from the penalty spot. 

There was no stutter run up this week as the penalty was despatched into the bottom corner (0-1).

West stepped up the pressure again and Kofi and George both had half-chances created by good passing moves, but both shot straight at the visitor’s keeper.

Then Hale doubled their lead out of nothing. Wilf rose to meet a Hale corner but watched in anguish as his header looped into his own net (0-2).

Last week’s horror show which saw West concede five early goals couldn’t happen again could it?

Not this time. West were far stronger than last week without the distraction of mansions and flash cars at pitchside. They dug in again and Wilf delivered the perfect response to his own goal. He latched onto an excellent pass from Isaac and fired in at the near post (1-2).

West knew they were right back in the game and Isaac and Frankie both went close to levelling before half time.

Shortly after the restart came the moment of the match as Isaac scored what I believe the kids these days would call a worldy. 

After good interplay on the edge of the box with William (who was doing his best impression of a good old fashioned centre forward), Isaac unleashed a curling drive into the top corner from just outside the box. If Barry Davies was still commentating it would have been greeted with an “Oh, I say, just look at that!”

It was one way traffic. 

Isaac, Ted and George all had half-chances as West took control. There only looked like being one winner.

Unfortunately, there is a famous saying that football is a funny old game – and suddenly West found themselves 4-2 behind.

First a Hale midfielder managed to beat three tackles and drove into the box. Alfie came out bravely but the ball cruelly bounced back off the Hale player allowing him to tap into an empty net. (2-3)

Then a pass across the box was intercepted by a Hale player who coolly slotted home. (2-4)

The home crowd was stunned. It wasn’t supposed to go this way! But there wasn’t time for West to mount a comeback and their Winter Cup campaign started with defeat.

Divisional Cup first round

WD&C U16 7 -4 FC Bluestar 

As we arrived at Parr’s Wood the mass of water covering the usual pitches for FC Bluestar indicated an opening of the floodgates on the River Mersey that we hoped would be replicated with a flood of goals on the pitch in the first round of the cup. Having lost in the first round for the last four years we were looking for a strong start but instead the early exchanges favoured Bluestar who led 1-0 then 2-1 and missed a pen. 2-2 at half time and some keen insights from the managers led to a strong second half with West running out 7-4 winners and booking a place in the next round. Two hatricks from the strikers with Nicquille Clifton scoring 4 and Daniel Eaton 3 could have been a lot more as Bluestars heads dropped at the end but a very satisfying team performance from the lads.