The Men’s 4s again made hard work of beating a stubborn Crewe side on Saturday morning. We didn’t start particularly well but went ahead early in the first half with a poacher’s finish from Rob. Del hobbled off with a calf problem after 15 minutes, muttering that he needed another holiday to see him right. Following this, we squandered several chances. Tom Sinc was unlucky not to put away a couple of good opportunities, though a well-worked goal from Matt C put us 2–0 up at the break.

In the second half, we again put pressure on the Crewe goal with no end product. We perhaps should have had a few more short corners, and the Crewe keeper was having a good game, leading to some frustration amongst our players and the inevitable breakdown in play that comes from this. Against the run of play, Crewe bundled in a short corner, which left us at 2–1. Seb C took umbrage at this and decided that a rugby tackle — which would have been applauded on the adjacent pitch — was in order, leading to a green card.

Following these setbacks, we put our scoring boots on and started putting chances away. Charlie C had a great game in midfield, with constant running that Crewe struggled to deal with, plus a well-taken goal from a short corner. We scored three short corners in quick succession, interspersed with a brilliant individual goal from Tom Selby, who nabbed the ball off the Crewe centre-back in the D and then slotted in from a tight angle.

The final score was 6–1, with goals from Rob C (1), Tom S (1), Charlie C (1) and Matt C (3).

MOTM: Charlie C — tireless in midfield and a goal to boot.
DOTD: Tom Sinc — unlucky not to score, but then tackled Albie to lock in the DOTD award.

Next up: Knutsford 2s, 12.30 at Heber on 31st Jan.