Thrilling victory lifts the Whizzers to top of the league
Billy Whizz's Wonderboys treated their fans to yet another goal fest at Shitters Palace last night, as they beat former bogey team Soccer of Napoli 4-3 to claim top spot of 5.10
Before the match, manager Billy Whizz said his team should be 'confident, yet cautious', and it seemed as though his team responded to the advice, although perhaps a little too literally for Whizz's liking at times.
The match started with 4 bookings inside 20 minutes, before the hosts seemed to score out of nowhere. Nice play by Konz set up Meredith, who fired home from close range. The referee then booked another player soon after that, much to the frustration of the Napoli fans, who had seen 4 of their players in the ref's notepad, with only a quarter of the game gone.
Despite the odd scare by the visitors, it seemed the Whizzers who seemed the most likely to score, with Meredith, Konz and Groves all coming close to extending the home side's lead. However, Napoli capitalised on a mistake by Phil Jones just a minute before half time to level things up going into the break, stunning the home crowd into silence.
That silence didn't last long in the second half though, as Richards headed home a cross from Fribo just 2 minutes after the restard, and Luke Groves curled home a free kick soon after to make it 3-1. Although the tempo seemed to slow a little, only a fool would say that the game was over, and so it proved when Napoli striker Jacoby smashed home a wonderful volley to make the scoreline 3-2 with just under half an hour remaining.
The match had plenty left to come though, as just 2 minutes later Mick Richards was on the end of a Matt Hawthorn cross to restore the Wonderboys 2 goal lead. Heads visibly dropped among Napoli players, as they saw their hard work once more undone due to a defensive lapse.
With 10 minutes to go, the visitors stepped up a few gears in both determination and desperation. Waves of Napoli attacks seemingly came and went, with Seymour and Fenell going close, before in the 91st minute Jacoby fired home to make the score 4-3, and ensure a nervy end to the game for the Wonderboys fans.
Whizz's verdict
It's pleasing to finally beat Soccor of Napoli - it's taken a while, but I think tonight was worth it. I'm shattered just watching that game - god knows what it was like for the players.
Overall, I thought our performance had positives and negatives. We were sharp up front, and Mick took his two goals particularly well. At the back, it was sort of the same old story really, but we should have one or two more players available for Friday, so we can perhaps be a bit tighter defensively.
Being top of the league is great, but we mustn't let it get to our heads. It doesnt mean we're the best team in the league, and it doesnt mean we can just turn up and win games. We've worked hard to get here - now we have to work even harder to stay here. Challenging for promotion is a difficult task, being consistent enough to stay up there, and it will be interesting to see how we do. It will be a big test for all of us, but its pleasing to be at this end of the table, rather than the relegation side of things.