Team Yardley Men’s 1st Team
Opponent Droitwich Spa 2
Date February 16, 2019
Result Win
Score 4 – 1

Goal scorers: Noor Zaman x2, Alex Makepeace, Jahed Islam

Two late goals gave the score-line a rather flattering appearance as 10-man Yardley made hard work of their win against Droitwich 2nds.

However, in spite of being only able to field ten players, Yardley set about their task enthusiastically and took the lead within five minutes through the efforts of Noor Zaman.

In spite of this set-back, Droitwich stuck to their task and produced several half chances, but these were confidently dealt with by the home defence. Yardley too were creating good chances but were wasteful in front of goal.

The remainder of the half saw some rather scrappy play from both sides and when the half time whistle blew Yardley were hanging on to their slender lead, that should have been rather more.

Early in the second half Yardley keeper Neal Makepeace was called upon to make a smart save to protect his side’s slight advantage.

Yardley began to press again and the influential Ricky set up a great pass into the D that only needed to deftest of touches from Noor to double Yardley’s lead.

Droitwich eventually managed to pull one goal back albeit through some scrappy play in the D that did not need much effort to steer it into the goal. Yardley continued to create chances but were unable to make them count. Droitwich sensed that they were not out of the game and enjoyed a period of pressure including several short corners. However, Yardley’s defence remained resolute and weathered the storm

As the game seemed to be heading towards a rather tame end, Yardley produced a late surge of effort that produced two goals that were hotly disputed by the visitors’ defenders. Yardley’s third seemed to be a rather scrambled effort with a melee in the D, the ball not being cleared and pounced on gratefully by Alex to give his side a little easier breathing space. Shortly after that another attack lead to skipper Zach passing the ball into the D, again not cleared but Jahed was on hand near the goal-line to get a final touch.

Yardley stuck to their task throughout, did not make the most of their chances, sadly missed their eleventh player and finally were pleased that the final score-line appeared to give them a comfortable win.

Next week Yardley are at home again, against Bournville 3rds. It is to be hoped that they can at least turn out with a full quota of players.

Categories: Match Reports