With both Wentworth and Halifax winning their previous matches and maintaining generally decent form throughout the season so far, a closely fought match between the two teams was to be expected. However it was soon apparent that this was far from the reality of the situation.
In the mild mid-morning conditions of 22 acres both teams got off to a generally even start with some early passing back and forth. Conner Meckin played especially well for Halifax, nearly netting an early goal in the 7th minute that flew just wide. As the game progressed, however, it became increasing obvious which was the more experienced side – Wentworth remained solid in formation (particularly along the back line), whereas Halifax were somewhat disordered, leading to spaces opening up in their defence and giving Wentworth numerous opportunities to score.
It can be largely accounted to the rather considerable combined efforts of stand-in goalkeeper Ollie Marsh and centre-back Gio McDarlin that these chances were not converted. Halifax were not completely without opportunity however and despite the tide of the game, managed to score late into the first half, against the run of play. Further attempts on target were prevented by the Wentworth defence with some particularly impressive tackles by Tom Radcliffe, leaving the scoreline at 1-0 to Halifax going into the interval.
The second half continued on in this vein; Wentworth for all intents and purposes appeared the superior side, but were still failing to score. Finally, as the game continued and exhaustion started setting in (especially for the more unprepared Halifax side) a chance appeared, and Radcliffe would not be denied scoring Wentworth’s first goal of the game. (Rather poetically occurring alongside the appearance of a rainbow, it must be said).
Despite some good play by Charlie Dunning and Stephen Griffiths for Halifax on the counter-attack, Wentworth continued to dominate, and after some thrilling play by captain Pace and Mutlu Cukurova they found the net again, bringing the score to 2 – 1. Following this, Halifax were left trying to chase the ball in opposition to an increasingly dominant Wentworth side. This was shown as Wentworth scored their final goal of the match in a superb demonstration of team play. The ball was intercepted from a Halifax throw in by Sotos, Radcliffe who took the ball then passed to Cukurova who crossed the ball towards the net in perfect position for a truly sensational header by Sotos who netted the ball, thus concluding the game. Leaving the final result as 3 – 1 to Wentworth.
Pace told vision ‘I was very impressed with our performance today, we worked well as a team and the result bodes well for our upcoming match against Derwent, which should be the toughest of the season.’
It should however, be noted that the Halifax team put up an incredibly good front given the absence of many of their first string players, and with a good proportion of those remaining having to play out of position. As such, it would be unwise to count the previous season’s winners out of this competition just yet!
Man of the Match – Tom Radcliffe (Wentworth)