Wonderboys open with shock loss at Shitters Palace
Wonderboys V Esaf
Billy Whizz's Wonderboys started Season 22 with a 4-0 defeat at home to promoted team esaf. With a bumper crowd to mark the opening day, hopes were high of a home victory to kickstart the campaign, however the Whizzer's fans that stayed until the final whistle were left bemused at the scoreline in a relatively even game.
During a quiet opening to the game, Phin had the first opportunity, but his left foot shot was comfortably saved by esaf keeper Marazzi. Shitters Palace was silenced 10 minutes later, after C.Nunn took advantage of slack defending by Phil Jones to steal in at the back post from a Stedman freekick giving esaf the lead.
The Whizzers seemed to be a state of shock, and had to defend once more as esaf were encouraged by the goal. A Yeleyko freekick almost doubled esaf's advantage, but it hit the bar, with Gok left motionless.
That seemed to wake the crowd up, and the home team enjoyed a spell of dominance, Z Al-Teymat missing two opportunities, and Luke Grove struck a fine freekick, that required a finger-tip save from the visitors goalkeeper.
Esaf landed another suckerpunch though just before the break, as Yeleyko fired home from just inside the area, leaving the Wonderboys going into the halftime break 2-0 down.
HT - Wonderboys 0-2 Esaf
The Whizzers started the 2nd half strongly, having plenty of possession, but unable to find the killer ball, and three times they were denied one on one opportunites by last minute tackles. A chance was Al Owaiwan, as he sent Luke Grove through on goal, however the striker's chip was smothered by an in-form Mazarri.
The failure to take advantage of this spell of pressure cost the home team dear, as esaf scored 2 goals in as many minutes halfway through the second period. First, a Nunn effort from 30 yards out hit the post, before dropping agonizingly short of Gok's despairing dive, and cruelly rolling into the net. Then, before the Wonderboys had any chance to muster any sort of response, Yeleyko was sent through by Crouch, making no mistake from 25 yards. If the 3rd goal saw a trickle of Wonderboy's fans start to leave, the 4th seemed to signal the mass exodus, much to the delight of the visiting fans.
The away side then sat back and conserved energy, as the Whizzers hurled balls forward for the remainder of the game. Mazarri earned his man of the match award by making fine saves from Phin, Groves and Al-Teymat in the closing stages, and the last action of the match was a booking to captain Enver 'The Rock' Mandirah, before the referee blew the final whistle, leaving two sets of fans with very differing emotions.
FT - Wonderboys 0-4 Esaf
Whizz's verdict:
The dressing room was a pretty quiet and despondant place to be honest with you. After the end of season break, both the fans and the players were ready to get back into things, and I thought our preparation had gone pretty well. It was a big crowd, and we really wanted to come out fighting and get off to a great start.
Unfortunately, today's gone completely wrong. 4-0 is quite a sobering result to be on the wrong side of, and now I've got to get them ready for Friday - how I do that I'm not quite sure. Shock is defintely the over-riding feeling - we're absolutely stunned for totally the wrong reasons.
The possession was pretty much 50-50, and they had one more shot than us. It was, buy all accounts, an even game, but they stuck the ball in the net and we didn't. That's football, and it's these sort of games that make football what it is.
Looking forward to Friday, we may well change some things around - conceding 4 isn't good, and thats the third time in as many matches this season, so it's clear something is going wrong. I hope that at the bottom of it all, this acts as a wake up call to the players - just because we survived last season, doesn't mean that we're guarenteed to do the same this time round. It's going to be just as hard, and they're going to have to give everything they've got - results aren't just going to come.