Wombles 2 Royals 2

1. Kris Lines
2. Neil McDermott
3. Dave Maloney
4. Jason Owen
5. Fraser Gascoyne
6. Simon Trussler
7. Neil Lewis
8. Joe Johnson
9. Ady York
10. Nathan Warner
11. Phil Littlewood
12. Rob Noel
13. Scott Eason
14. Ben Taylor

Sub unused Ali Mac

Scorers : Trussler, Warner

The Wombles were forced to play this home fixture at Vicky Park which should actually have been of benefit considering the state of Dally Park last week, the only negative to the move was having to put the nets up which turned into a military manoeuvre orchestrated by Big Col. Royals were the visitors and they were looking to avenge a defeat in the reverse fixture, and the pre-match talk was of not taking them too lightly despite the fact they seemed to be missing a few of their better players.

The first half was a scrappy affair with neither side getting going. Despite this both sides spurned good chances which would have given the game some momentum. Half time came and Sam Ali-dyce had some harsh words for the players, suggesting that they were “f@cking sh;t” and promising to make wholesale changes if things didn’t pick up.

About 10 minutes in, Ady was finally forced to admit defeat in keeping his hamstring under control and was replaced by Eason whilst the dependable Bugsy was replaced by club hardman Ben Taylor. A few minutes later the Wombles were behind when a ball from the right hand side found the Royals striker who volled into the corner via the soft hands of Kris “my mum lives in France” Lines.

This finally clicked the Wombles into some sort of action and a long diagonal ball from Nasal found Lewy who had a shot parried to Truss who had the simple task of tapping the ball into the net. This world class cross by Nasal (no mention of the first time cross under no pressure went out for a goal kick) was to be his last meaningful contribution to the game as he was replaced by Rob shortly after. Another team reshuffle from the tinkerman seemed to have gone arry when Joe failed to clear and the Royals were back in front.

With the clock ticking the Wombles went 3-4-3 with Joe pushing up to right wing and he made amends for his earlier mistake with a fantastic run and cross which Nath tapped in at the near post to get a share of the spoils.It was a poor performance from the Wombles who never got going and the only exciting part of the day was the skipper eating 5000 orrible chicken legs.

An interesting OPTA Stat from after the match showed more tactical changes than completed passes! Next up the champions elect away. We’ve proved that we can give anyone a game on our day as well as giving away a game to anyone so it will be interesting to see which Wombles team turns up!