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The Chequer made hard work of their
third straight premier league victory, the winner coming
with just 15 seconds left on the clock and AC Parafix
can consider themselves very unfortunate not to have come
away with a point from the game.
The Chequer approached this
game far to casually, assuming that AC Parafix's 11 -
2 loss to John Henry's the previous weekend meant that
we were going to be in for an easy game. With something
approaching our strongest starting eleven, overconfidence,
a casual approach and naive, schoolboy defending very
nearly cost us all three points.
Despite starting with only
10 men, Parafix were stronger in the tackle and won most
of the loose balls, and after 10 minutes they were strengthened
to 11 and began to have a series of telling attacks. The
normally solid Gareth Dutton made a series of errors to
concede possession deep in or own half on several occasions.
The Chequer played the better passing game, but when the
opener came halfway through the first half- a very cool
left footed finish from close range from Trevor Yearwood
- it was somewhat against the run of play.
Parafix equalised soon after
when Chequer failed to clear a long ball through the middle,
which one of the Parafix forwards chased down, and hit
a superb low 20 yard finish past Matt Bailey just as a
tackle from covering defender Richard Wilkie was coming.
Soon afterwards the same
defender had to leave with a recurring ankle injury. This
meant a number of changes with George Trafford dropping
from central midfield to centre back, Gareth Dutton moving
across to left back and Christian Young switching to right
back, with Chris Duffet coming on in central midfield.
With so many changes The Chequer looked even more vulnerable
than before and were conceding possession in all areas
of the pitch far too easily. Still managing to string
some flowing passing movements together though, they took
the lead shortly before half time with a close range effort
from Warren Partridge, after good work down the right
wing by Si Price. The lead lasted only a few minutes though
as centre half Steve Duffet needlessly shoulder barged
a Parafix player in the box when contesting a header to
concede a stonewall penalty, which was smashed home to
leave the game 2-2 at half time.
Tom Pickford was brought
on at half time to strengthen central midfield, Gareth
Dutton coming off, with Lewis Partridge reverting to his
more familiar left back role. Unfortunately the changes
had no immediate positive impact, and within 5 minutes
of the restart Chequer found themselves 2 goals down and
in serious danger of taking nothing from the game. Both
goals were the result of terrible defending, on both occasions
free headers in the six yard box from right wing crosses,
though Parafix's 3rd should have been disallowed for a
clear offside . A fifth goal for Parafix very nearly came
soon after from the exact same move, Chequer simply failing
to pick up runners into the box.
The nature of the
game changed when a hamsting injury reduced Parafix to
10 men as they had no subs available. For the remaining
25 minutes Chequer dominated possession and passed the
ball around with ease. Trevor Yearwood added his 2nd to
get the Chequer back to 4-3 and with 8 minutes remaining
Warren Partridge netted his 2nd to bring the game to 4-4.
Chequer launched attack after attack in the final minutes
in an attempt to secure the winner, and were thwarted
by some last ditch tackles and great saves from Parafix's
keeper. However, with just seconds left on the clock Si
Price's pinpoint right wing cross was met by a thumping,
unstoppable header from Chris Duffet.
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Squad:
(4-4-2)
Matt Bailey
Richard Wilkie
(Chris Duffet 30)
Steve Duffet
Gareth Dutton
(Tom Pickford 45)
Christian Young
Si Price
George Trafford
Sean Hourigan
Lewis Partridge
Trevor Yearwood
Warren Partridge
Subs:
Chris Duffet (30)
Tom Pickford (45)
Aaron Comber (not used)
Rick Nash (not used)
Goalscorers:
Chris Duffet
Waren Partridge (2)
Trevor Yearwood (2)
M.O.M.:
Trevor Yearwood |
