Wyrley Juniors vs. Silverdale

Result: Wyrley Juniors 3 - Silverdale 3

Silverdale snatch a draw in the dying minutes

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Silverdale were unbeaten in all 16 league games this season with Wyrley only beaten once in their previous 11 league games - their previous defeat coming on 9th December against Silverdale. So it was to be an interesting test of how far Wyrley had come over the winter months when the two teams squared up to each other on a glorious spring afternoon on a pitch sandwiched between the railway line and the river Tame south of Walsall.

Because of the continuing poor state of the Jones Lane surface, Silverdale had generously offered the use of their LMRCA ground in Pleck, a venue which provided both teams with the opportunity to put on an attractive but fiercely competitive display of passing football.

As usual, Wyrley took the longer of the two teams to settle and succumbed to the opening spell of Silverdale pressure after 13 minutes when a header from Silverdale's Chris Billingham took a deflection off the head of Matthew Anstey into the top corner of the Wyrley net to make the score 0-1 to Silverdale.

Wyrley showed impressive character to respond to this setback with a 10 minute spell of outstanding attacking football resulting in three goals.

Luke Brown and Matthew Anstey gave notice of Wyrley's intentions when both players went close after splitting the Silverdale defence wide open. Then on 23 minutes, a flowing move down the right allowed Matthew Anstey to reach the goalline near the corner flag where he played the ball back to Edward Marrocco who crossed the ball to the far post where Jordan Clarke had stolen in on the blind side of the Silverdale defence to put Wyrley level.

Two minutes later Wyrley went into the lead when Karl Deeley put a slide rule pass through the Silverdale defence for Matthew Anstey to run onto and score past the advancing Adam Wedgebury in the Silverdale goal.

Within a minute of the restart, Luke Brown unlocked the Silverdale offside trap to run onto a pass from Matthew Anstey to put Wyrley into a well deserved 3-1 lead.

Wyrley could have gone further ahead when Matthew Anstey easily beat Silverdale's dodgy offside trap to go through on the goal only to see Silverdale's Adam Wedgebury pull off a top drawer save to beat the goalbound shot over the bar.

Silverdale were visibly stunned at conceding three goals in under five minutes and seemed unable to regain any composure during the remainder of the half, although Chris Billingham almost reduced the deficit with a long distance shot that cannoned off the top of the crossbar.

The fact that Silverdale were confined to long-range shots demonstrated how well Karl Deeley, Jason Dennerley, Todd Wootton and Adam Nicholls in the Wyrley defence were working to deny keep Silverdale at bay, and how effectively the midfield of Simon Casserley, Edward Marrocco, Jordan Clarke and Shaun Nicholls had been in stifling their set-up play, while creating chances of their own.

Half-time: Wyrley 3 - Silverdale 1

The pattern of the first half had been spookily similar to the game against Viper the previous week. In both games Wyrley had gone behind to a headed goal only to respond by going in 3-1 up at the break with goals from three different players.

Wyrley started the second half determined to prevent history repeating itself but it seemed that fate was to deny them the victory that their first-half performance deserved.

Silverdale started the second half in the same way that they had started the first with the majority of the possession. Within the first ten minutes of the half, Mark Biddulph in the Wyrley goal pulled off two good saves to preserve Wyrley's lead. The first of these was a composed save from a long-range shot just underneath his own crossbar, while the second was an outstanding reaction stop from a shot on the edge of the six-yard when it seemed inevitable that Silverdale must score.

Despite mounting Silverdale pressure, Wyrley continued to defy the seemingly inevitable when a flying last ditch block by Todd Wootton preserved Wyrley's two-goal margin after Mark Biddulph had lost the ball at the feet of Chris Billingham in the penalty area.

Wyrley showed great composure and organisation to deny an increasingly desperate Silverdale side seeking to avoid their first defeat of the season and it was 20 minutes into the second half before Silverdale finally breached the Wyrley defence with goal similar to Wyrley's first when, from a throw-in near the corner flag, a ball to the back post found an unmarked Richard Bullock.

It still seemed as though Wyrley might take all three points from this game until the dying minutes when Chris Billingham managed to find a gap between the forest of Wyrley players surrounding him in the penalty box to slot the ball inside the far post to draw Silverdale level.

Wyrley had created chances to put the game beyond Silverdale in the second half but found themselves ruled offside. They kept the play in the Silverdale half of the field for significant periods but it wasn't enough to deny the divisional leaders a share of the spoils.

In the end Wyrley were left to rue the missed chances in the first half that would have put the game beyond Silverdale's reach and consoled themselves with the knowledge that they were only the second team this season to finish a league game against Silverdale with any points at all.

Full-time: Wyrley 3 - Silverdale 3

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