Royton Athletic 2 - 6 Shawdale

The Weather Played Its Tricks… As Shawdale Hit Six (6)...…

On a cold, blustery wet morning at Clayton Playing Fields, with the rain-blowing horizontal at times and the wind leading a merry dance through the tree tops, and on occasions, so strong, ringing the church bell in the distance and with the seagulls and pigeons being knocked off course and trying to find shelter in any old hovel.

Shawdale produced some ebullient football to out fox the conditions and adapted to the driving rain and wind better than their opponents.

No more, so than “The Predator Durrant “who bagged another 4 goals, to bring his tally to 25 for the season.

It was certainly “The Match Of The Day” in this round of fixtures.

Playing into the wind in the first half, with the high ball holding up in the gusts of wind, Shawdale changed their tactics, to a short passing game, keeping the ball on the turf and outplaying the home side, with some great passages of one touch football.

With Holmes orchestrating his band of merry men in the middle of the park and the presence of Durrant up front and a guessed appearance from Allot in defence, who held the line magnificently in such adverse conditions.

Thus, It wasn’t going to be easy for the home side to unlock this finely tuned Shawdale outfit, even in these elements.

In the early stages, chances were squandered, Wrigley on the left wing was impressive and was jumping up and down like a gazelle seeing two of his strikes trickle pasted the far post, “The Rock” and Durrant also missed the opportunity to get on the score sheet early on, forcing a couple of great saves from the Royton keeper.

The home sides keeper kept the visitors at bay, with some great saves for the first 20minutes, that was only until the visitors struck with panache and guile did the home side get a reminder of what was in store for the next 60 minutes.

So on 21 minutes, a great ball by The Magician Holmes, found Durrant lurking near the penalty spot, to slide the ball home for his first.

Then shortly afterwards, that Holmes Durrant partnership, saw Holmes hit a great shot, for the keeper to parry, with Durrant following up, to slot it away.

Then on 35 minutes, along up field kick by the home side saw the ball bounce meters from Ellidge and a gust of wind carried the ball over his head into an empty net.

For the first time in the game Royton put some pressure on Shawdale’s defence and from a rash challenge just outside the box, a great free kick saw the home team draw level…

That was the end of their challenge after that, Shawdale taking full control and minutes later Tommy The Rock made it 3-2 with a lovely strike.

Then on the stroke of half time, there was a handball in the area, and Durrant slotted it away for his first half hat trick.

Playing with the wind in the second half, Royton couldn’t compete with the intensity of Shawdale’s youth and speed. They had a hat full of chances, to put the game to bed, but again Roytons keeper pulled off some majestic saves to keep his side in the bout, especially from the frustrated Wylie, who saw his shots saved, time and time again.

On 80 minutes, Holmes took it on himself to get on the score sheet, as he blasted a shot from 15 yards that this time the keeper couldn’t keep out.

Then on the final whistle Durrant popped up again for his fourth. As he slid the ball under the keeper.

All the lads worked tirelessly through out and apart from the Coaches missed chances to get on the score sheet; he was overwhelmed with his side’s effort and resilience.

With a big cup-tie next weekend at League leaders Crown, Coach Wyllie’s job is to get the lads in the mindset to beat the Champions.

“Seemingly Crown have always got the better of us, but sooner or later the tide will change and maybe it will be this coming Sunday….” Wylie commented