Whitchurch mens 1s 9 – Neston South Wirral 7s 0

Whitchurch went into their final game before the Christmas break looking to continue their return to form, but were contained well by young Neston team marking the first of the season’s return fixtures. As with the first game of the season, Neston held the ball well and were able to withstand everything Whitchurch could throw at them, despite some fine work from Whitchurch who were doing the basics well from the start. It was near the end of the first half when the deadlock was broken by Jack Barnes slotting in from a short corner routine to mark the end of a very evenly balanced contest.

The second half continued with the same crisp passing, good positioning and strong marking that Whitchurch had used so far and, as time passed, experience showed with Whitchurch able to turn on the style. Felix Jeffries had moved up from left half to left wing and was able to scythe his way through the Neston defence to score a lovely goal, and as Neston heads dropped, Whitchurch laid on the pressure with Tom Leonard added to his tally with another strong strike. This was followed quickly by Martin Beecher’s tidy finish before Jeffries again turned on the speed and the style to get his second.

At the back, Sturge was solid in goal and Whitchurch were able to move the ball quickly across the defence to set up attacks. Jake Wood, Ryan Murtagh, James Partington and Ben Fry provided the stability to build from, and Joel Leese controlled the centre, releasing well to Jeffries and Ben Kimberley who was able then to pass to Leese for his first goal. As Neston heads dropped, tempers worsened, but after a reset, Whitchurch focussed on skills and played some beautiful hockey to allow Beecher and Leese to get a second goal each, and the game was finished with some excellent work and goal by Ben Fry to leave Whitchurch top of the table by three points with much-improved goal difference.

Matches restart on the 14th of January, with Whitchurch playing Bebington at home.

Oxton ladies 2s 1 Whitchurch Ladies 1s 2

Whitchurch ladies 1s played away this week at Oxton. Throughout the whole match Whitchurch controlled the game passing the ball around the Oxton players.

The Oxton defence were strong and for a while held Whitchurch off. Oxton had plenty of shorts corner chances but Whitchurch keeper Maddy Sugden was on form and made some amazing saves. Whitchurch players pushed up high wanting the goal and this allowed Oxton a gap to break and score.

Some great zigzag passes up the pitch from Lisa Sullivan, Lucy Rattcliffe and Ellie Windsor allowed Grace Berry a strike towards the goal and Sue Read a touch to score Whitchurch’s first goal.

After half time Oxton came attacking but Catherine Reece-Gresty and Clare Fitzgerald held strong in defence passing the ball back up the pitch to Charlotte Lawder and Emma Harper who scored the second for Whitchurch. The final whistle went and Whitchurch were very happy with their well-deserved 2-1 win.

Chester Mens 6s 4 Whitchurch Mens 2s 0

Whitchurch 2s travelled to Chester for the last game before the mid-season break. Christmas commitments and illnesses meant that the 2s travelled with a very inexperienced team of 10 players for this match and having lost 4-0 to Chester earlier in the season, things weren’t looking great for Whitchurch even before the game started.

Making the most of their numerical advantage, Chester immediately lay siege to the Whitchurch goal and opened the scoring within the first few minutes of the game from a well struck short corner.

Chester continued to press forward. Matt Brooks and Richard Leigh in the centre of the Whitchurch defence were under constant pressure, but with help from Doug Buckeridge and Aaron Shackleton, playing as wing-backs, and Tom Forster and Aaron Llewellyn dropping back from midfield, Whitchurch were restricting Chester to half-chances around the edge of the dee.

Wiley play from the Chester players led to a succession of short corners, but the defenders forced Chester to rush their shots and anything on target was brilliantly stopped or cleared by Neil Jones in goal.

As the half wore on, Whitchurch were able to make more progress towards the Chester goal. Forster and Llewellyn were able to play higher up the pitch and feed passes to Aaron Swain and Airon Jones playing on the flanks. With support from Buckeridge and Shackleton as well, eventually Whitchurch found some possession around the Chester dee, but were unable to get to manufacture any shooting positions for James Wise.

When Whitchurch attacks broke down at the edge of the attacking dee there was always the risk of being caught on the counter-attack by Chester. But the hard work of Whitchurch players continued to frustrate Chester and the score remained 1-0 until half-time.

Chester began the second half on the front foot and forced Whitchurch to defend much deeper than in the first half. This led to a flurry of short corners, which were defended manfully by Leigh, Brooks, Llewellyn and Buckeridge, but with Chester loading the dee for each short corner, keeper Jones was forced into more saves and clearances.

Eventually however the Whitchurch defence was breached twice in quick succession. Although the initial short corner routines were defended, the sheer number of Chester players in the dee resulted in chances that were fired past the helpless Jones.

With Whitchurch trying to respond to the two quick Chester goals they were caught on the counter-attack and Chester were able to sweep forward and add a fourth goal.

But Whitchurch dug deep and tried to come back into the game. Two surging, diagonal runs from right back by Aaron Shackleton lead to chances for Aaron Swain and James Wise, but Whitchurch were unable to apply the finishing touch to Shackleton’s good work.

Despite the 4-0 defeat, the Whitchurch players can be rightly proud of their efforts in this game, and the experienced Chester players were gracious enough to acknowledge this after the game. James Wise ploughed a lone furrow up front and Aaron Swain and Airon Jones worked hard at both ends of the pitch. Aaron Llewellyn and Tom Forster had excellent games in midfield despite being outnumbered for most of the game. Doug Buckeridge and Aaron Shackleton covered a lot of ground trying to support attacks and assist the defence, and Matt Brookes and Richard Leigh were superb in breaking up wave after wave of Chester attacks. Once again Neil Jones was excellent in goal and had no chance with any of the four goals Chester scored.

Whitchurch 2s remain in 7^th position in the table. The team returns to action with a home game against Llandudno on 21^st January 2017.

The ladies 1s game was cancelled due to frozen pitch.

The ladies 2s were credited on 3-0 win after Wilmslow ladies 4s conceded the game.

 

Whitchurch Mens 2s 0 Runcorn Mens 3s 0

Whitchurch 2s welcomed Runcorn 3s with fog and freezing temperatures at SJT.

Runcorn started the brighter with their experienced midfield trio immediately taking control of the centre of the pitch. However they were unable to make any progress into the Whitchurch dee thanks to strong defending from Iain Bones and Mark Sugden. When Runcorn tried to attack using the width of the pitch, they were unable to find any way past Richard Leigh and Aaron Shackleton.

Whitchurch tried to mount their own attacks but they continually ran into Runcorn defenders and were unable to make any real progress towards the Runcorn goal. James Wise was isolated up front despite the willing running of Ellis Hickson and Airon Jones trying to offer support.

Runcorn managed to force a brief flurry of short corners midway through the first half, but these were well defended by Whitchurch and their goal was never really threatened. This prompted Craig Hockenhull to come into midfield as a substitute, which gave Whitchurch a bit more drive and control in the centre of the pitch and enabled them to start creating some chances in the Runcorn dee.

A swift passing move started by Sam Conway provided Aaron Swain with a chance that was well stopped by the Runcorn keeper, and Aaron had another chance just before half-time, which he fired just wide after a melee in the Runcorn dee.

With the fog thickening and temperatures dropping, the second half followed a similar pattern to the first. Despite the hard work of Marcus Conway, Tom Forster and Josh Parry to try and contain Runcorn’s midfield, they were struggling against their more experienced counterparts and Runcorn continued to enjoy more of the possession and territory. But the Whitchurch defence remained strong and Runcorn were still unable to create any clear cut chances to score.

It was late in the second half when the best chances arrived. Whitchurch went close when Craig Hockenhull fired into the dee and James Wise’s deflection wrong-footed the Runcorn keeper, but flew wide of the goal. Runcorn responded and brought an excellent save from Whitchurch keeper Neil Jones. And then with the final play of the game, Iain Bones charged into the Runcorn dee and fired across goal but neither Ellis Hickson or James Wise were able to deflect the ball in at the far post.

This was a hard-fought 0-0 draw with a team that were pushing for promotion last season. The draw ends Whitchurch 2s run of defeats and moves the team up to 7th place in the league. Next week the 2s travel to Deeside Ramblers 7s.

A special mention for Jess Kimberley who stepped in at the last minute to umpire her first men’s game. Jess had an excellent game and drew praise from both teams for her performance.
Whitchurch Mens 1s 5-0 Wrexham Mens 2s

Whitchurch 1s made a return to winning form with a comfortable, but competitive, victory against a strong Wrexham team.

The Reds started brightly, moving the ball around quickly and keeping possession well, but it took 15 minutes for this to be rewarded with a first goal.  After failing to score with their first penalty corner, the next was also broken down by a fast Wrexham defence, but only cleared as far as the 23m line, with the ball slipped back into Joel Leese to score low to the keeper’s left.  Within a few minutes this was followed by another from open play – Ben Fry squaring the ball from the right, followed by a through ball to Ben Kimberley who finished confidently – and another followed within five minutes, again started by Fry as he picked out a free player in the opposition D who squared the ball to Kimberley for his second.

The second half saw a second short corner converted, this time collected and put away by Steve Lloyd as the ball rebounded from an initial shot by Tom Leonard.  The fifth was a classic striker’s effort from Martin Beecher, collecting a through ball in front of goal before moving away, turning and finding the back of the goal with a well-struck shot.  Wrexham gained more control of the game in the final twenty minutes, but the Whitchurch defence managed to keep out a succession of short corners to maintain a rare clean sheet.