Sunday 13 October 2013

 

Village Manchester's second team returned to league action at the weekend as they faced Audenshaw FC at Wright Robinson.

 

There were a raft of changes from the squad that comfortably saw off Newcastle Panthers in the previous week's GFSN Cup game.

 

Out went Baker, Hardern, Parkin, Panos, Langford, Clayton and Jones and in came Dornan - making his first appearance in goal - Sal, Bryce, Slater, Mahon and Ranson, who took his place on the bench.

 

The team knew they were going to be in for a tough game as their opponents were top of the league following a comprehensive victory in their opening league game.

 

The game started with both teams trying to get the measure of each other. Audenshaw were the quickest to get into their stride however and began to look the most dangerous. This danger resulted in the opponents taking a 1-0 lead as one of their wingers outpaced Findlay and pulled the ball back for a striker to poke the ball home.

 

One quickly became two as a ball over the top saw McPherson and an Audenshaw striker chase the ball to the right hand corner of the box. Instead of the striker taking the ball on, he elected to shoot first time. And it was a good decision for him as the ball flew past McPherson and over Dornan into the far corner of the net.

 

A poorly defended free kick from the left saw an unmarked Audenshaw player head in the third and Village desperately needed to stop the deluge. This began to happen as the team managed to take a grip of the game, retain more possession and put some incisive passing moves together. 

 

Village finally tested the keeper with a few shots and were gifted the chance of a goal as the referee punished a push in the box by an Audenshaw defender. Mahon - making his debut for the club - comfortably stepped up and sent the keeper the wrong way.

 

The first half came to a conclusion with both teams cancelling each other out in the minutes that remained.

 

Half time: VMFC2 1-3 Audenshaw FC

 

It seemed that the next goal would be important as to which way the game would go. Village needed to keep up the tempo which saw them get a foothold in the game in the latter part of the first half.

 

Unfortunately, an extremely poor second half performance saw Audenshaw run away with the game.

 

Village were out-performed, outran, outclassed and out of ideas as their opponents put six past them in the second half. 

 

Audenshaw broke the offside trap a couple of times to grab the fourth and fifth and they further extended that lead as Dornan was unable to keep a looping header out for their sixth. Poor defending at a corner handed Audenshaw their seventh and they added a couple more near the end to add gloss to the score line.

 

Following a first half that ended with promise, the team were disappointed with a second half display that was simply not good enough. Simple passes were misplaced, opponents weren't tracked and heads went down to easily. There is talent in the squad however and they will be itching to get back into action and set the record straight.

 

Full time VMFC2 1-9 Audenshaw FC