Team Sheet; Chapple, Will, Hall, Marcus, Kinners, Niall (Kinners mate), Lewis, J$, Jezza, Tirtha, Rhys Subs; Ferdi, Aneesh, Ash
The return of UWMCCFC was long awaited in the club. The reigning Warwick active Saturday league champions and E & Y conquerors finally returned to Tarkett in what was to be an interesting start to the campaign. With national indoors and a surprising amount of clubmen going to London there were fears of an undermanned team, so many thanks must go to; Niall Johnson, Ferdinand Rex and Tirtha Raj for their heroic efforts in filling in. With Maths & Stats up first, this was always going to be a baptism of fire for new captain Roche.
As the game started you could tell it had been a long summer with many loose touches and a lack of fitness obvious in a few players (especially the captain). However we came to do a job and in that regard we performed excellently, meaning goalkeeper Chapple not having to make a save in the first half. This was due to the excellent defensive play by the experienced CB pairing of Hall and Marcus assisted by the ever-present shield of Lewis and Niall. For all our work at the back we still created the better chances thanks to the tireless efforts of Rhys up top. One attack led to a corner which was nearly bundled in a least four times before Marcus’ effort sailed just over the bar. All was nearly lost though after an impressive through ball, their striker hit the post (much to the relief of Will who had fallen asleep at that point). The rest of the half was largely uneventful (summed up when bex turned up to watch and left 5 minutes later) with the exception of a majestic chest control, from the impressive Ferdi, in the box that everyone at the ground had to admire.
At half time there was the feeling we were going too nick a result, however the lack of fitness started to tell and Maths & Stats grew into the game early in the second period. The pressure started to tell with more and more shots being taken by maths (meaning Chapple who had played for physics before made his first save after over 3 halves of football) and around 15 min into the half they scored. Much the annoyance of the team who strongly believed that the player was comfortably offside, the ref let the goal stand. This reinvigorated the team and lead to UWMCCFC finishing the game pushing hard for that elusive goal. Even with only 2 defenders for the last 5 minutes we could not create a significant chance due to some impressive defending from Maths & Stats. In the end we could only feel hard done by after a very impressive performance. With physics next week and the return of some missing players, there’s a good chance for a more positive result.