|
The wind blew diagonally across the pitch, from left to right and into the faces of the massed ranks of spectators. There seem to be a few more claret fans that are now making regular visits to watch the youth team and these were added to today by perhaps two-dozen or more visitors from a coaching affiliate of ours in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. They probably found the Baltic wind to be quite mild!
It didn't take us long to get an upper hand in the match. Within 5 minutes Oliver Devenney had stabbed the ball home after the ball broke kindly to him in the box following a deflected shot. The entire Wigan team stopped and put their hands in the air claiming offside but the linesman ignored their pleas giving Devenney a simple task.
The remainder of the half was poor. The pitch, which up until today had held up well, was cutting badly in places, leading to bad bobbles and many miscontrolled passes. In terms of goal mouth action I can recall nothing. Both sides were guilty of sloppy play and the half time whistle was gladly heard.
With the wind more behind us, the second half saw us much more dangerous. We had early long range sighters from the midfield duo of Harvey and Chris Anderson, but both went over as the wind got under them. Wes Fletcher saw his shot fly into the midriff of the keeper as he shot on the turn and Michael King flashed a powerful shot into the top corner side netting.
Our pressure paid off soon enough as Devenney was again on hand to prosper from a fortuitous break. As we were encamped in the Wigan box the ball was played back by Fletcher and Anderson curled the ball goalwards. The keeper sprawled to save but the ball squirmed loose and Devenney was on hand to punish him.
Harvey was then forced from the field after a slightly late challenge in the middle of the park. We can only hope that it was an impact injury which can be quickly shaken off. His place on the field was taken by Dave Lynch with the U-16 midfielder given more opportunity to gain experience ahead of next season's scholarship. Minutes after the change Wigan got back into the game as the left winger escaped his marker and beat Ritchie to his right.
On the right wing Oliver was asking for more and it was duly offered as the ball was fed to him in the box, but brave work by the keeper at the feet of Devenney saw the effort blocked. The impact though was severe and the goalkeeper was forced to leave the field following treatment. As Wigan had used all subs they were down to ten men and their big centre half took up the gloves.
King and Liam Newman were replaced by James Craggs and Dom Knowles, but despite the one man advantage we were unable to really test Wigan further. The referee brought the game to a close after a short period of stoppage time with the final score at 2-1 to the Clarets.
Team:- Stef Ritchie, Dil Chaggar, Jake McEneaney, Dan Brown, Chris Lynch, Oliver Devenney, Alex-Ray Harvey (Dave Lynch), Chris Anderson, Michael King (James Craggs), Wes Fletcher, Liam Newman (Dom Knowles).Subs not used:- Ben Woodhead, Ed Williams.