Woodbridge Town Under 11s (Sunday) v Bury Town ‘C’ (Home)

Sunday 27th January 2008

Half-time: 3-0 Full-Time: 6-1 Scorers: Stephenson (2); Christie; Dimuccio; Taylor; Thurlow Team: Elsom; Archer; Thurlow; Hopkins; Kekwick; Stephenson; Tripp; Read; Portaluri; Dimuccio; Christie. Subs: Church; Taylor This game brought together two of the favourites for promotion with Woodbridge knowing that victory over third placed Bury Town ‘C’ would add to the pressure on one of its closest rivals. The loss of centre-half Khaled Abdel-Aziz and left-back Ewan Wickson through illness saw Aaron Thurlow move back to play alongside captain Ben Hopkins and Miles Kekwick return at full-back. The game began with Woodbridge adopting a 4-5-1 formation to ensure that the threat from Bury’s central midfield was nullified and this tactic appeared to work with Woodbridge again dominating possession and territory in the early exchanges. However both teams were finding it difficult to deal with the uneven surface and on several occasions players lost control at the crucial moment. The Bury keeper was also outstanding in this period and he made several top drawer saves to keep the game goalless. However in the end the deadlock was broken when the keeper could only parry Laurence Portaluri’s free-kick and Jack Christie reacted quickest to head home. Giorgio Dimuccio, who has started to make a habit of scoring important goals, made it 2-0 with a superb strike into the top corner from just outside the area. The boys were then denied opportunities to extend their lead with the opposition keeper making several good saves and the defence making some important last ditch tackles and clearances. However just when it looked as though Woodbridge would run way with the game, Bury re-organised and with Woodbridge having gone to three at the back and two up front, Bury started to exert some pressure on the home goal and Laurence, with his usual calm reading of the game got into position to clear the ball off the line and maintain the two goal cushion. However this action saw the boys reassert their authority and just on half-time, Laurence delivered a pinpoint corner for Aaron Thurlow to head in at the far post. The second-half began with Woodbridge reverting to 4-5-1 to counter the likely pressure brought by Bury advancing down the slope. Miles Kekwick returned to the fray and Caspar Church replaced Giorgio on the left of midfield. Bury, as expected, did put more pressure on the Woodbridge defence, but with Ben Hopkins and Ashley Archer in fine form Joe Elsom was well-protected. Matthew Read was also as tenacious as ever and he was winning a lot of ball in midfield and this was allowing Sam Tripp and Laurence more freedom to influence the game. Laurence released Robbie Stephenson, who was having one of his best games for the team, and he drove into the area and rounded the keeper to make it 4-0 and soon after Sam provided the ball for Robbie to score his second and give Woodbridge a well deserved 5-0 lead. However Bury did not capitulate when the opposition striker hit a ball from outside the penalty area into the top corner, but rather than sit back Woodbridge continued to look to add to their tally. Sam Tripp was very unlucky when he controlled the ball, turned but didn’t quite get enough curl on his shot. It was left to Marcus Taylor to finish the scoring, when, having gone close moments earlier; he beat the keeper with a well placed shot into the left-hand corner. This was another impressive performance on a difficult surface. The defence for large parts of the game held a good line and bossed the opposition attack, while the midfield dominated their counterparts. With seven league games left, the squad have 43 points and keep the pressure on the teams chasing. Three more wins should guarantee promotion, but as the boys said at the need of the game what they want is to win the league in style. The boys now have a week off, before playing Bohemians in the quarter finals of the Open Cup on Sunday, 10th February. Thanks to everyone who supported the team. It was good to see several boys, who hadn’t been selected at the game with their parents. Thanks also to Daniel Frost for running the line in the first half and Aaron’s dad for taking over at half-time.