Whizzers move to 1 point from 2nd after 3-2 win at the Palace
Billy Whizz's Wonderboys weathered a second half storm to move up to 6th place in 5.10, and register their 3rd win of the season.
The Wonderboys were 3-0 up after just 33 minutes, but after O'Reilly received his 2nd booking in the 39th minute, had to hang on to beat Cornfield Rovers at Shitters Palace.
Before the match, manager Billy Whizz had called upon his team to be more clinical, and the return of Mick Richards up front was a welcome one, as he partnered promising youth Thomas Avery. Enver 'The Rock' Mandirah made his first appearance of the season, due to bin Whizzer's injury, while Matt Hill and Phil Jones continued in midfield.
Whizz's message appeared to have been well listened to, as the match was less than 2 minutes old when O'Reilly chipped through Avery, who finished expertly. The Wonderboys continued to push, and a brilliant passing move culminated in Morten Fribo shooting just wide from outside the box, however the game was very much stop start, with Jones, O'Reilly and Chickachev all booked before the game reached the 15 minute mark.
The Wonderboy's dominance paid off though, and after 20 minutes they had doubled their lead. Hawthorn beat his mean, and made a perfect cross for Phillipe Konz to head home past Barton.
Up to this point, the Brothels had offered no attacking threat, but the goal seemed to wake up their players, as they seemingly remembered their perilous position in the league table, or simply that they were there to play football, and one minute later they should have halved the deficit. Buenk failed to capitalise on O'Reilly fluffing his tackle, and he sent his shot wide when under little pressure. Paul and Foster also missed chances for the visitors, and they proved to be costly, as the Whizzers scored their 3rd moments later, in the simplest of buildups.
Whizzer found Fribo with a goalkick, who controlled the ball instantly, and beared down on the Cornfield Rovers goal. With the visitors defence backing off him, the Wonderboys packed him tried his luck, and smashed the ball home for the Wonderboys 3rd of the night.
Billy Whizz could barely have believed what he was seeing. Before Wednesday, his team had scored just 5 goals in 6 games, yet after just 33 minutes, they were 3 goals to the good. The only bad note to an otherwise perfect half of football was O'Reilly's second yellow card, for a silly challenge on Thorp, prompting Whizz to bolster the defence by bringing on Alan Thorpe in place of Hawthorn.
Whizz will no doubt have urged caution in the 2nd half to his team, and will perhaps have warned to concentrate, and avoid giving the visitors a flicker of hope by conceding an early goal. Either he didn't say that, or his team didn't listen, as just 2 minutes after the restart Foster smashed home from 25 yards, and the hosts were teetering for the first time in the match. Thorp and Gagarin both missed chances for Cornfield, and a second goal looked like coming, however the Wonderboys rallied, and forced some pressure themselves, albeit to no avail. Fribo and Avery both forced saves from Barton, but as the game entered the last 20 minutes it was pretty clear what the Wonderboy's task was - to defend their 2 goal advantage a man down.
The game thus slowed down a little, but was blown wide open again when Gagarin rose above Mandirah to reduce the hosts lead to just one, and nobody was leaving early here. The Wonderboys defended resolutely until the 90th minute, when Phil Jones missed an interception, giving Foster time to fire a fierce shot, only to see a magnificent reflex save from Whizzer deny his team an equaliser.
Whizz's Verdict
I was delighted with the first half, and I thought we defended well on the whole in the second half, bearing in mind we were a man down as well. I'm pleased we put up a good show for the fans, and maybe if we didn't go down to 10, we could have hit 4 or 5, but the win puts us in a good position that we can build from. With one or two players returning shortly, we need to use this momentum to push us into the promotion places, which is a difficult task, but I have confidence in the players.