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Photos: Jack Western
Derwent came out 4-2 winners in a scoreline that sounded far more exciting than it actually was in a scrappy game on 22 Acres.
Goodricke began the first half strongly, dominating possession in the first 25 minutes. They had a number of close chances with Jonathan Gillbanks coming closest. Goodricke continued to put the York defence under pressure and had another excellent chance which rebounded off the goal and the keeper twice, in the melee Gillbanks was fouled and a penalty given which Rob Young duly converted.
Following this Goodricke continued to enjoy the momentum and captain Joe Mann was once again in excellent form dominating the wing and providing excellent service into the box. However, they failed to convert this dominance into any tangible chances and slowly Derwent managed to edge themselves back into the fixture as they began to increase get some decent chances. Captain David Kirk had a great chance which was heroically saved by the keeper, who was extremely forthright when it came to coming out of his box to make interceptions, while Kirk skied over the rebound.
As the half came to an end the sides were relatively evenly matched with Goodricke perhaps enjoying the better of the play, Mann had a great chance to make it 2-0 but his shot went agonisingly wide. As half time approach Derwent were able to equalise through a scrappy Ryan Gwinnet goal which pretty much summed up the half with Gwinnett literally battering through the ‘keeper to score.
The second half began in much the same vein as the first, scrappily, lacking creativity and quality with a premium on hard tackles and long balls which to be fair probably was more to do with the terrible state of the pitch than any deficiencies of quality of the respective teams. However, Derwent were now beginning to click through the gears and this showed with a brilliant curving goal from captain Kirk which dumbfounded the keeper as it looked as it was going out until the last second.
From then on in the floodgates opened as Goodricke who must have been regretting their missed chances in the first half were beginning to look tired and ragged. Harry Lambert made a brilliant interception but his shot selection in the box was poor and the attack fizzled out. No matter as Sven Sabas was causing huge problems for the increasingly tired Goodricke defence as he used his strength, battering through them to score the third.
Derwent now were completely in control and Jamie Trant sealed the match with a rare moment of quality, when he intercepted a cross of pinpoint accuracy before slotting the ball through the legs of the keeper for the fourth. Goodricke were not done however and Joe Mann did score a consolation goal to make it 4-2, a much fairer reflection of the match which for the most part was not dominated by one side and was for the most part a scrappy affair which could have easily been much closer. Derwent played out the last 10 minutes calmly and professionally and the match ended 4-2.
Goodricke’s Mann was disappointed by his sides performance stating: “We started really well, there was only 1 team in it in the first 25 minutes, but we took our foot off the gas, there were some silly balls and they didn’t slow down, there man up front was lethal.”
Derwent’s Kirk said :“We played well today; we had a understrength side as we had a lot of injuries and people unavailable. Goodricke are a good side, we knew it would be difficult. In that respect it was a good result for us and to score 4 goals is a brilliant result. I’m sure it wasn’t the best match to watch but we played to our strength’s and got a good win.”
Vision’s Man of the Match: Sven Sabas