Week 3 Review - 26th September 2016
Old Wyks 1s 3 - 1 Old Wellingtonians 1s
Goals: Mitchell, (OG), Essex; MoM: Mitchell
And the Wyks go marching on, on, on.
Another week, another three points for the table-topping OWs, as the Old Wellingtonians were ground into the Bulls' Drove dirt. With Pete Fuller soaking up the Grolsch and continuing his search for Nemo in Amsterdam, the 1s produced a performance straight out of the Captain's tactics book as they ran out 3-1 winners at HQ.
The first half was characterised by James Essex's efforts to bring his shot accuracy percentage down to human proportions and the opposition keeper's attempts to audition for a role as back kick on OTH canvas, stubbornly launching ball after ball onto the foreheads of Mssrs Dawkins, Mercer, Tiplady and Mitchell, much to their delight.
However, Wykehamical dominance was to little avail and the dark blues were disappointed to go into the break level-pegging.
This however, would not last for long...
In years to come, bards will tell the tale of Ollie Mitchell's OW debut: the defensive solidity, the clipped balls down the line, and then the lung-busting, logic-defying burst that saw him surge from left-back through a dumb-struck Wellingtonian midfield to the edge of the area; he cocked his blunderbuss of a right foot only to dummy, sending two defenders sprawling before hammering the ball into to back of the net and himself into OW folklore.
Would that this strike had decided the game as it deserved to, however, a lapse at the back allowed Wellington back into the game as they restored parity with half an hour to go.
Weaker men would have wavered but as with Caesar and Cassius, the Wykehamists swan against the tide, buffeting it with lusty sinews and stemming it with hearts of controversy; it was too much for Westminster. Matt Black, Dave Prichard and Tom Goulding were now strangling the midfield while Saunders and Wapshott penetrated down the flanks and soon they took the lead once more through an own goal, though very much an error of the forced variety, such was the panic inspired in the Wellingtonian rear-guard.
There was just time for James Essex to leave his mark on the game. A quick free-kick, a slammed finish, a shirt and vest discarded on the turf and a torso, shining like alabaster in the late-summer sun.
Job done.
-- Mercer --
Old Haberdasher 1s 4 - 1 Old Wyks 2s