High Five For L4 Who Extend Lead At The Top

With four wins out of four our 100% winning start was up for it's sternest test so far as MSB Woolton Warriors were the visitors to Maiden Lane in a game that was switched to a 12:15pm kick off due to the ongoing referee crisis. We were very much down to the bare bones with a 13 man squad however thankfully Ben Devlin had recovered from a knock he picked up last week to make the starting line up. Skipper Paddy Clegg slotted in alongside him with Kaleb Sweeney in his preferred number 10 role. The opening stages began as expected with some great individual duals including former player Mitchell Canty up against Samson Aboiro who dealt with his attacking threat very impressively. We should have taken the lead in the 16th minute when some excellent work from Charlie Hacking found Gift Sibanda at the far post only for the angle to be narrow which resulted in his effort hitting the side netting. Hacking had a long range effort as did Paddy Clegg with neither finding the target. Our defensive shape was preventing any danger from Woolton however we were becoming frustrated with our failure to break down their compact defensive line. (Half Time 0-0).

We made a slight change in shape at half time which pushed another central midfielder forward and Jude Carroll was given more license to bomb forward and support the attack which worked a treat. A blistering 5 minute period secured the victory as Warriors were simply blown away by the speed of our attacking play. The deadlock was broken somewhat fortunately when a Zico Williams corner was pushed out by the keeper and Hacking was in the right place to loop a header over for his 13th of the season. Hacking then turned provider for our second with a powerful run down the right flank and his cross found Gift Sibanda at the far post who tapped home. A minute later Jude Carroll's cross found Zico Williams at the near post who directed his finish past the helpless keeper to make it 3-0. Substitute Ethan Danku contributed yet again with some excellent battling and Jude Carroll's was getting forward making superb overlapping runs, his cross was headed home by Hacking for his 14th goal of the season which capped off another impressive result. It's now 5 wins out of 5 and only one goal conceded which is no mean feat considering the players we have been without over the last month. Confidence is high at the moment and the consistency shown is mightily impressive. There is still a long way to go no doubt however this feels like a big win already in achieving the holy grail of a much craved league title.