Pre-season progress report
The past ten days has seen Wrington Redhill’s first team squad in action with three games all away with the Recreation Ground being unavailable due to the cricket season in play. As is expected at this time of the year several players were unavailable for certain games due to holiday commitments, although this did allow all players in the squad to have valuable game time for the season’s preparations.
First up was a visit to Kewstoke for an evening fixture against Sporting Weston just promoted from the Weston and District League to the Somerset County League Division 3. Following on from their winning start against Cheddar the weekend before this performance was well below what is expected. Whilst taking no credit away from Sporting, their visitors were way off the pace in a lacklustre mood ending up losing 2-1 and a good wake up call to what is ahead.
Saturday’s opponents were Congresbury, another team having won promotion from Division 3 to 2 in the County league. The first half in particular was a much better affair, bouncing back with some attractive free flowing football. The movement and intensity saw them dominate most of the play but missed goal chances limited the half time lead to 1-0 with Ethan Williams scoring the only goal following a fine build up.
Second half changes took a while to settle into a rhythm and this allowed Congresbury to get on the front foot to build a 2-1 lead. For the last twenty minutes Wrington Redhill’s training sessions proved an extra fitness level and came back as the stronger side and goals from Ethan Johnson and Reece Ferguson-Obamwonyi secured a 3-2 victory.
The following Saturday was against and hosted by Hutton FC, an opponent Wrington Redhill has in the past struggled against and this was no different as the home team started with quick movement of the ball getting in behind the defence creating chances. The visitors were missing a few players for this fixture but once they started a getting a foot on the ball started to carve out their own chances with some slick passing movements. From one such attack it was good to see Ayrton Phillips back in action and he picked a gap through a melee of bodies and found the back of the net for a 1-0 lead.
From the restart the team switched off and were suitably punished when Hutton levelled from the resultant attack forward. Wrington Redhill restored the lead with Leigh White heading in a Reece Ferguson-Obamwonyi pinpoint cross taking the lead into the halfway stage whilst still not at their best.
After the break Hutton again equalised but this saw Wrington Redhill go up through the gears resulting in more goals, two well struck angled shots from Jack Hutchings and a fierce long-range strike by Ollie Clements.
With a settled squad and the addition of young goalkeeper Logan McKenzie impressing in the games played and Ash Towler we move on to the final pre-season game at Burnham United next Saturday with confidence for the tough season ahead back in the Premier division of the league.
Squad:
Logan McKenzie, Matt Hill, Josh Pitt, Dan Ferguson,Ethan Johnson, Jordon Bonner, Matt Walsh, Sam Harvey, Ollie Clements, Ryan Pugh, Ayrton Phillips, Jack Hutchings, Joe Creese, Reece Ferguson-Obamwonyi, George Fake, Leigh White, Ashley Towler, Ethan Williams, Rory Thomas,
