Matthew Rickwood was in attendance for the recent clash between Slimbridge and Droitwich Spa, offering a grounded, observer’s perspective on a game that turned dramatically on its head. Watching closely from the stands, he had the best view of the night.
Have a read of his report!
Droitwich suffer Slimbridge blues!
Slimbridge continue promotion form.
Slimbridge, on a six-game winning run before start of play and free scoring with a total of 23 goals in total. Currently, they are six points clear at the top of the table ahead of second place Worcester Raiders.
The visitors, Droitwich Spa, have had an excellent debut season in the Hellenic league. However, they have had mixed fortunes in their last six games collecting 10 points from a possible 18, making them lose ground on the teams around them.
The two teams played recently in the UHL challenge cup with Droitwich coming away with a 1-4 win. The reverse fixture resulted in a 0-6 win for Slimbridge back in August.
The game started with the visitors showing some early signs of intent with captain James Lemon having a shot over the bar. The first five minutes Slimbridge were struggling to settle as they showed nervous signs on the ball.
The home side grew into the game over the next five minutes or so to even up to the tempo Droitwich had started with.
In the 13th minute the away side showed their first good bit of play with James Lemon with a great run and shot towards goal, luckily it was straight at Stephen Sarkodie in the Slimbridge goal.
In the 21st minute the game got stuck in a rut with both teams seeming to turn to the long ball, which resulted in a compilation of head Tennis. However, this resulted in Slimbridge showing their first attack with Jack W Smith having a good run and cutting inside the full back but fired his shot wide of the goal.
The best chance of the game fell to the visitors in the 33rdminute with a long throw into the box, a miscue header from Slimbridge full back Bogdan Mara, fell kindly for Alex Dugmore who tried an overhead kick but it just went over.
The deadlock was broken in first half stoppage time with Olly Sully. A fantastic individual effort in weaving in and out of four Droitwich defenders to fire past Joe Stockton in the Droitwich goal.
The second half took a while to get going with the first chance coming from the home side six minutes into the half. That man Olly Sully got free down the right and whipped a great ball into the box but unfortunately there were no takers in the centre.
Just before the 60-minute mark we had a bad challenge on the Slimbridge goalkeeper by Perry Moss which resulted in a yellow card. This seemed to lead to a bit of ill discipline from the visitors and another two yellow cards followed shortly after.
With twenty minutes left of the game Shiyak Sutherland created a great individually chance with quick feet but he fired straight at the goalkeeper. The home side continued to try and find the second of the game with great play with intricate passing resulting in a volley by Sam Blackie, which was well blocked by the Droitwich defence.
However, the second goal did come in the 84th minute with that man Shiyak Sutherland showing his quick feet to turn the centre half inside out and fire a shot into the goal. No sooner had we kicked of and the third goal followed a minute later. The Droitwich defence all at sea let a through ball from Joe Stokes go unchallenged and Jack Smith runs one on one with the goalkeeper and calmly takes it round him to pass into an empty goal.
Slimbridge line up:
Sarkodie, Mara, Matthews, Kang (C), Giles, Haswell (Hitchings), Sully (Blackie), Stokes, Smith (Barnes) W Smith (Bell), Sutherland. Unused Rodgers.
Droitwich Spa line up:
Stockton, Brighton, Phillips (Levy), Rudd (Jackson), Saunston, Tilbury, Moss (Taylor-Randle), Tilley, Dugmore (Baldwin), Binner (Dallaway), Lemon (C)
Attendance: 248.
Slimbridge 3-0 Droitwich Spa
Written by Matthew Rickwood
@Mattrickwoo1
