Uttoxeter Town vs Stafford Town FC
1 - 1
28 May 2021 · North West Counties<br>South
Away friendly match played on 28 May 2021.
Kicked off at 7:45 PM
1-1
vs Uttoxeter Town
Away friendly match
The boys in red ended a stop start stop season with a credible and confidence building performance away to newly promoted step 5 club Uttoxeter. Before we get into the details we'd like to add what a thoroughly decent bunch everyone associated with that football club is. We wish you nothing but success in the MFL and hope our paths cross again.
This final game of a fragmented season was always going to be a challenge away from home the Friday of a bank holiday weekend just coming out of a national lockdown and that proved the case with late arrivals due to very busy roads making for less than ideal pre match preparations.
Into the game however and Town started very brightly looking to build on Tuesdays narrow victory over Smethwick and to restore some confidence after the horror show at Darlaston the previous Saturday. The opening ten minutes showed the intent with the visitors enjoying the lions share of the attacking play. This was evident when Kaz Danilion burst into the box and was judged by the referee to have been barged to the ground by the outrushing home stopper. Up stepped the experienced Sean Kinsella who struck a decent enough low shot but the keeper made amends with an outstretched leg to clear the effort out for a throw.
The game had a good tempo and intensity to it and both sides enjoyed periods of possession rewarded with efforts on goals but the deadlock was not to be broken before the interval.
20 minutes prior had seen the fresh young legs introduced of both debutant Ryan Chilton and 16 year old attacking u18 player Kaysan Al Salih. Both did themselves and the club proud and featured for an hour. A tweak to the shape at half time along with a couple of more personnel changes ensured the intensity was not allowed to drop from a Stafford perspective.
Around the 70 minute mark saw Chad Birch feed a through ball to Peter Tautscher, it ran through to the keeper who fumbled it into the path of the advancing striker who duly accepted the gift and tapped it home to give the visitors the lead.
The old adage is you are at your most vulnerable immediately after scoring and rang true. Straight from the kick off Uttoxeter combined well down their left flank, everyone in red was drawn to the ball leaving unmarked bodies centrally and their Ghanaian international was left unmarked to side foot home the equaliser.
The action was far from over with the home side having a further effort chalked off for offside and Peter Tautscher being denied a guilt edged chance to notch his brace hitting the keeper from close range.
An entertaining affair for the decent size crowd in attendance and a credible way to draw a challenging campaign to a draw.
Match highlights can be found here:
https://youtu.be/IbxA-Y45FHs