Match Report
Poynton A v  Droylsden Juniors
Sunday 2nd November

This report relates to our recent home game against unknown quantity Droylsden Juniors, I wasn’t intending to write a report so this missive will be dragged from my ageing grey matter without being able to refer to any hastily scrawled match notes so please bear with me and forgive any errors.
As I walked from my car I noticed that Dean Makin was trying to emulate one of the European football maestros, which one it was I didn’t have a clue, but Dean being there meant that Barney had returned to the team after playing for Macclesfield academy. That was good news because we had been playing with just the bare bones of a team and Barney would make a big difference in games to come.

As I walked over to help Steve put the nets up I couldn’t help noticing that pitch number two, the one were playing on was a right mess, it was uneven, rutted and the grass hadn’t been cut for god knows how long, in a word it was Cr*p !  I had noticed that pitch one was in much better condition and for some strange reason the grass was much shorter but I put that down to Council cut backs and only financing the mowing of the nearest pitch to the entrance.
Anyway once the nets had been put up, I glanced over to keep an eye on the opposition and thought that they looked more robust than our lads and seemed to have a confidence about themselves that might cause us problems when the chips were down.

Whilst waiting for kick off, I noticed that the referee was a more mature gentlemen, I was glad of this as usually the older Referees are better at keeping the game flowing unlike a younger one we had a few weeks ago who obviously had a new whistle and liked the sound of it, I will say no more !
When the whistle signalled the start of the game, Poynton pushed forward and kept Droylsden on the back foot for quite a while, but the odd break by Droylsden showed the Poynton lads that they could be dangerous and would punish us if given the chance.

Poynton kept the pressure up and were awarded a corner which Rob Potter launched into the goal area to be nodded home by Ryan Paisley putting Poynton ahead early on in the match.
There was some fantastic physical football from both sides, neither side wanting to back off from the other but Poynton had the edge and shortly after our first goal Rob skilfully beat his marker up the right wing and another great ball was crossed in front of goal which was soon languishing in the back of the net having been put there by a powerful header from Kelly.

The Droylsden lads didn’t let their heads go down and battled away furiously but were frustrated when their efforts were thwarted by good defending from Kempy, Adam and Tweedy, nevertheless a couple of good shots on our goal tested Sam who didn’t let us down by bravely putting himself into the line of fire on more than one occasion.
Several good chances by Poynton were stopped by their goalkeeper and Rob was getting frustrated by just missing out on a couple of goals, but he made up for this by making our third goal when he again crossed to Kelly who was in front of goal resulting in a side footed tap into the net, two other similar set pieces resulted in two more goals for Kelly, both were disallowed due to him being offside.

Alex McLaren and Craig Martin were working hard along the left and between them and Ollie played some great passing football which helped us progress up the pitch, Humez and Tweedy were playing some good one twos on the other side of the pitch, Tweedy making a difference with his long throws into the Droylsden box which caught their defence off guard on many occasions.
As the game progressed we had a bit of stoppage when Ryan Paisley went up for a 50/50 ball with one of their defenders and this resulted in Ryan landing on top of the unlucky lad who was winded in the crash to earth, but minutes after the game restarted the same lad, number 6 I think pushed forward in a concerted Droylsden attack and put away a brilliant unstoppable header.

Half time score:   Poynton 3   Droylsden  1
I didn’t hear Cammy shouting at half time and made the assumption that he was pleased with the lad’s performance, only joking Ian you don’t shout that much! The second half started and we had a change in the line up with Barney replacing Humez, Barney playing an attacking role up front, Kelly dropping back into his usual midfield position in front of Ryan Paisley.

Poynton resumed their attacking game style and put pressure on the Droylsden defence, it wasn’t through lack of trying that Poynton didn’t put at least three goals away in the first ten minutes but a lapse of concentration on our part saw a long ball floated into our area, the chance wasn’t wasted by a Droylsden striker who headed the ball into the back of our net.
Poynton’s reply to this was a nice goal from Barney after he had dribbled the ball through their defence to slot it home. Poynton 4      Droylsden 2

Rob Potter’s perseverance was finally rewarded when he made mincemeat of his markers up the right wing and slotted the ball coolly into the corner of the Droylsden net. Some brilliant passing football which included some great individual skills resulted in Poynton camping in the Droylsden half for long periods and it was only a matter of time before we scored again, Barney again made his presence felt when he received a nice ball from Ollie which was tapped into the net much to the annoyance of their goalie who was protesting about his defenders lack of challenges.

Poynton thought that the game was in the bag and who could blame them but by doing this they relaxed and Droylsden who were very determined did not give up and took the game to us and put us under some severe pressure for quite a while, Adam was substituted and Humez took his place for the last fifteen minutes of the game and did himself proud in an unfamiliar position.

One of the Droylsden lads made a great run dribbling through and stepping over some of our lads for fun and eventually smacked the ball with venom straight into our net which got a well deserved round of applause from both sets of supporters.
After the shock of that goal, Poynton pulled their socks up again and battled back to worry the Droylsden defence, a couple of goalmouth scrambles saw Poynton almost score but there were too many bodies in the box and the chances slipped away. Craig Martin and Ryan Paisley had a couple of rocket like shots from just outside the area which would have been awesome had they gone in!

Rob Potter made another great run up the right and after beating at least three players played the ball across the keeper into the left hand corner of the net. Three individual hat tricks were on the cards but alas neither Kelly, Potter nor Barney could nick that third goal and the game ended with the infrequent blast of the Refs whistle.
Both teams played their hearts out and were a credit to their managers and clubs, passion and commitment was present in every one of the players who gave their all. Well done lads!

Poynton  7   Droylsden 3

Goal Scorers:  Kelly x 2     Potter x 2      Barney x 2    Paisley x 1
Man of the match awards went to Kelly and Tweedy                                                         Report by Tom