V's 2-2 Wick

After losing against Arundel it was important that we did not lose our next game and it was a tough one away at Wick FC who are a competitive and hard nut to crack. We started brightly and their goalie decided to be charitable and dollied the ball to Dom Hemblade who showed great composure to strike the ball from well out side the box into an empty net. Soon after this Luke Manley who was working hard up front turned his man but was pulled back without another defender in sight. The assistant red flagged the ref and a red card was shown which naturally Wick were not happy about but I've seen them given and not given and in this case it went in our favour.
We continued to press and play some good football with Fordy getting a lot of space on the left but too often the balls in the box drifted over the bar and while we were on top we weren't really creating clear cut chances. Wick even with 10 men are a threat and they never gave up and so it proved as the Wick wide player won two tackles and crossed the ball for the ever reliable Scott Murfin to tuck away. 1-1 at half time and both managers would have been pleased by their team's efforts.

The second half was much the same as the first as we dominated play and passed the ball well and did create a couple of chances which should have been scored. Alfie Mitchell making his debut at just 16 put in an admirable display and was not fazed at all and certainly was robust enough to deal with any tackles. On 57 minutes we got the break through our play deserved as Luke Manley managed to get a touch on the ball which just went over the line. Wick again felt hard done by as they felt their defender had cleared it but video footage shows it had in fact gone over the line.. al be it by a couple of inches.

We always knew that we might need a third goal to secure all three points and so it proved as with 15mins to go from a corner the ball fell to Ryan Singers who hit a tame shot but importantly on target and it evaded all the players in the box of which there were plenty to nestle in the bottom corner. It's a lesson to be learnt. Hit the target and you stand a chance of scoring especially if it's in the corner rather than a harder shot that is inaccurate.

So points shared which was an opportunity missed by our lads but good to get a point on the board after the loss in the week.