Wrington Redhill Reserves vs KVFC

Weston and District Division 3

29 April 2015 6:15pm

Wrington put in a below-par performance as they slumped to a 4-0 home defeat to a hungry Kenn Valley side who badly needed the victory to give them a chance of promotion, with potentially damaging consequences for the hosts’ title bid. Perhaps complacent after securing their promotion last week, Wrington’s second-half display was lacklustre and full of uncharacteristic mistakes from a usually solid defensive unit, combined with some largely ineffectual forward play.

The home side actually started far the brighter, as the visitors, starting with only 10 men, barely touched the ball in the first quarter. It wasn’t long after the introduction of their full complement of players though that the visitors took the lead, as indecision over who should close down the striker on the end of the box gifted him far too much time to fire a low shot towards goal, which Vowles could only push into the side netting.

With the exception of a cross which caught the wind and ended up brushing the top of the crossbar, the goal was the only real opportunity of the first half, with Valley content to get 10 men behind the ball and let Wrington play the ball in front of them and try to hit on the counter.

After Moore, Rouvrais, Burnett and Holland had all fired half-chances wide, the home defensive calamities began in earnest mid-way through the second period to present the visitors with an early second goal. Holland tripped when carrying the ball out of defence, although it appeared that fellow defenders Curtis and Williams would get back to provide cover, before Vowles rushed from his line to collide with Williams and allow the away striker free to pass the ball into the net past Curtis.

When the referee compounded a poor performance by awarding an unlikely penalty against Curtis for handball shortly afterwards, the game was put beyond Wrington and heads dropped, despite a good chance for Johnson to score at the other end.

Further comical defending gifted the away side a fourth as Curtis’ attempted volleyed clearance ended up slicing behind him to put the striker through one-on-one for another gift-wrapped goal. It could have been even worse for the hosts as Selman was lucky to stay on the pitch in conceding a second penalty that was not converted, and a thunderous speculative effort smashed off the home crossbar from distance.

The one positive that can be taken is that a similar slip by Westend means that the Reserves can still secure the league if they win their three remaining fixtures, although they will need to be much improved on the evidence of tonight’s showing.

FULL TIME Wrington 0-4 KVFC

Wrington: Vowles, Holland, Curtis, Williams (C), Faulkner, Moore (Cozza), D. Burnett, Rouvrais, Selman, Oliphant (Buck), Johnson

MOTM: unawarded