Tuesday, 3 December 2013

Armthorpe Welfare 2 - Thackley 0


The fourth contest between these two sides this season, saw Welfare walk away from a cold Church Street winning their first game in eight matches, with goals from Jay Rollins and Captain Craig Morley.

Welfare came into this Premiership clash having lost eight matches in all competitions on the bounce including heavy defeats at Thackley, Albion Sports and Heanor Town, only scoring six goals in the recent run of poor form.

Welfare gave a second start of the season to Luke Atkinson after impressing in the unlucky 1-0 defeat to runaway leaders Tadcaster, Craig Morley captained the side also in the absence of Richard Smith.

Both teams started slowly with only a few chances in the first 20 minutes. Thackley’s Matt Hall came closest to breaking the deadlock with a selfish shot into the side netting.

The game then lit up with an off the ball incident causing a sending off for Thackley.

Luke Atkinson won the ball fairly off Luke Richardson, as Atkinson got back to his feet, Richardson felt the need to raise both hands and push Welfare’s number two to the ground, the referee sent Richardson packing much to his disgust.

This was the turning point in the game as the first half came to a halt with very few chances for both sides.

Just as manager Brian Johnston wants his team to play, Welfare started the second half with an intense work rate and forced Thackley into mistakes.

The chances started to come for Welfare as they made the extra man count with Stuart Gibbard coming close, heading over from an inch perfect cross from Rollins.

An excellent piece of play from Welfare broke the deadlock. Jay Rollins held the ball up for Danny Taylor who played a defence splitting pass into Rollins, who took a touch and placed the ball into the Thackley goal, his ninth goal of the season.

11 minutes later, Welfare attacked once again with Stuart Preston, Danny Taylor squared the ball, a missed shot from Gibbard fell into the path of captain fantastic, Craig Morley, to slot home and double the home sides advantage.

The final whistle blew and the reaction everyone involved in the club was hoping for. A second half performance that stunned highflying Thackley, showed that Armthorpe are no push overs.

Welfare travel to mid table Basford United on Saturday, looking for back to back wins for the first time since September.



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