16.02.08
Man of the match: John Smith
Saturday saw Wokingham and Embrook travel across Reading to meet the Corinthians at James Lane. W&E are pushing for a top three finish this season and boast the division’s top scorer in Pat Selby who is 7 goals clear in the race for the Premier Division’s Golden Boot. Corinthians were boasting a near full strength squad, with only skipper Dan Groves unavailable, although Chris Long and Jon Simmons were not risked due to ongoing injury concerns.
The game started at a brisk pace on a cold but sunny afternoon, and it was clear from the start that the game would be fairly open as both attacks were asking questions from the early exchanges. John Smith and Daniel Huggins were causing plenty of problems for the visiting defence, whilst the White’s rear-guard of Ben Charters, Andrew Taplin, Ian O’Reilly and John Quinton were having to work hard to keep W&E at bay. Following recent incidents of referee abuse within the league the match official had made it very clear that he would stand for no dissent of any kind from players or officials, and laid down early markers with warnings to any offenders, and the sending off of the W&E coach.
After an even opening 15 minutes the game looked like a goal would not be long in coming, and it was Corinthians who were the first to concede when a cross was not dealt with and men were left unmarked at the far post leaving a simple finish past the stranded Jamie Scott in goal. Corinthians responded well however, and Joff Charters stepped up his attempts to dominate the middle of the park. Together with the tireless Joe Charters he drove the side forward and within 5 minutes the score was 1-1. Fin Mulholland played the ball through to John Smith who bore down on goal. Smith cut inside and squared to Daniel Huggins who maintained his excellent run of goalscoring form firing a low shot into the net from the edge of the box.
Sadly Corinthians were unable to hold onto this lead and on 30 mins W&E re-took the lead when despite several chances to clear their lines Corinthians were unable to get the ball away, and were punished by a fine 25 yard effort into the corner of the net. Ten minutes later and what was a poor half of football by the Whites was compounded when a ball down the left channel was not cleared, and the resulting cross was turned into the net.
3-1 at half time was no more than Corinthians deserved as they had lacked any of their usual fluency, creativity or passion. The message was a clear one, start to do the things that we do well, high intensity, creative movement and bravery with the ball.
The second half started in a similar way to the first, but Corinthians were beginning to exert some authority on the game and were creating chances. Drew Warnke on the right wing was coming more into the game, and if not for an unfortunate bobble when through on goal may well have scored on 55 mins. On 65 minutes however Corinthians did start their comeback. An indirect free-kick was awarded inside the box when a W&E defender was adjudged to have obstructed Huggins as he chased a through ball down. The kicked was rolled to Joff Charters whose drilled effort was deflected by the keeper into the path of Warnke who finished well despite a quite outrageous attempt by the linesman to flag for offside with 4 W&E defenders still stood on the line in the defensive wall.
Buoyed by the goal Corinthians pushed up their efforts and dominated the final 20 minutes of the game. Warnke, Huggins and Smith were all unlucky not to score before a foul to the right hand side of the box saw Joff Charters step up and curl a fine free kick into the far corner of the net giving the keep no chance.
Dimba Keir replaced Warnke for the final 15 minutes and his pace caused several problems for the visitors, bringing 2 fine stops from the W&E keeper. Corinthians faced 10 men for the final stages after a W&E defender was dismissed for abusing the referee, but were unable to finish the job with the game ending even.
Given the disappointing first half performance Corinthians cannot be too despondent with a point, however the chances created in the 2nd half suggest that this was a winnable game. The Whites can be pleased that they controlled their emotions and their mouths in a game that at times threatened to boil over as the referee’s strong line on abuse caused problems for their opposition. With the treatment of referees a high point on the footballing agenda given that games have now been abandoned due to abuse in the past two weeks, scrutiny will be tight on players and clubs alike, and Corinthians will have to keep their brains, as well as their feet fully engaged. Next week sees Corinthians welcome Taplow who are still in the running for a top 3 finish and will be looking to avenge the 5-0 defeat handed to them by Corinthians last month. Taplow are a strong and committed side who can cause any club problems in their day, so the whites will have to be at their best if they are to claim maximum points from their final home game of the season.