Cartshaft 4 - 1 Shawdale

A First Half Shawdale Will Want To Forget……..

A minutes silence was observed before the match, for Sue Wilkinson mother of player Michael, who sadly passed away earlier in the week.

All involved with the club send their condolences to Michael and his family in these difficult times.

You can ask yourself three questions about todays result. Was the pitch playable? Did Shawdale rue the effects of a three-week lay off? OR didn’t Shawdale adapt to the conditions?

Well, I think it may be abit of all of the above, at the end of the game the pitch resembled a farmer’s field rather than a football pitch. This not allowing the visitors playing their usually style of play.

Did they feel the effects of a lengthy lay off, I would say yes, as they just weren’t at the races in the first half especially, conceding four goals.

And finally, did they adapt to the conditions…Answer, not as good as their opponents, especially in the first half but probably shading possession in the second period.

But give credit to the home side, they did adapt to the conditions much better and put Shawdale to the sword in the first period.

Shawdale just never got out of the blocks, but that may have been because they were just stuck in the mud and were down to ten men, just before the half time whistle.

Playing with a slight wind in the first half, Carshafts goal keeper caused havoc in the Shawdale’s defenses with his long towering kicks, which led to three of the home sides goals.

Four nil down at half time Wylie read the riot act to his players, who looked rejected and a beaten team.

What he said was unprintable, but certainly made a difference in the second half, only the glue pot pitch stopping them from getting back in this tie.

Probably the only bright light, was when Ryan squared a great ball into the box for Durrant to tap home.

Ireland tried but became frustrated with the pitch and Barnes did his utmost best to make inroads out wide.

Holmes and Morrow made some good touches in these tricky conditions, only to see their efforts nullified due to the glue like mud.

On reflection perhaps the game shouldn’t have been played and I would like to see these two teams thrash it out on a dry flat pitch.

Nothing much more to report, as the saying goes ‘It was just one of those games”

Your only as good as your last game, so depending on what Boris decides tomorrow, this may have been the last game for a while…lets wait and see……