A depleted but still excellent set of Marsh Players took on Vallance, and moved Marsh Rangers F.C. into a clear 3rd place in the table with this victory at the West Ham Unt. Community Centre Ground.
There was even an opportunity, need?, for Manager Dave Campbell to come on as a sub. and show his silky skills to the world, again. He even took a 93rd minute Penalty but saw the ball “ narrowly “ miss the top of the Vallance goal. Marsh had taken an early lead when the ball was slid to BRADLEY HAND who turned the Vallance defence inside out before unleashing a shot that flew into the Vallance net. The young Vallance side were playing well .and often looked capable of scoring but lacked the final finish to beat a “ First Time Keeper “, due to injury, in Miles Wiggins. MILES HAS NOW PLAYED IN EVERY POSITION ON THE PITCH FOR MARSH RANGERS F.C. He was later “ removed “ as keeper and placed on the pitch by even more injured Jack Bigwood. Originally Adam Casey was to be in goal but at the last minute had to be elsewhere, and Spencer Brown was nominated as keeper until Miles turned up still injured, and not expecting to play. Steve Cloherty was having to play as a defender / winger, with even a little midfield work, and along with capt. Harry Thomas, Phil Tubb, Paul Nolan, and Spencer Brown was outstanding.
The defence kept the heart of Marsh beating by last ditch tackles and superb Team play. This allowed others to play with confidence in their defenders. Up front, the already injured double of forwards Bradley Hand & Jack Bigwood chased everything and put in fine performances but the game ended with Jack in goal and Bradley off the pitch both further injured. The midfield had the injured Daniel Lobjoit playing alongside the skilful Rhys Price, with Andrew Thomas also having an eventful if rare run out. In fact Andrew, better known as Swampy, set up the second for Marsh with a cross that STEVE CLOHERTY turned in. Marsh relaxed too much and Vallance took their chance to pull one back with a long range effort that deceived the Marsh stand-in keeper. Vallance played with skill but perhaps not yet full confidence in their own ability, and allowed Marsh to “escape“ conceding on a number of occasions. On the half hour Jack Bigwood, whilst as an outfield player, fired a low cross in and RHYS PRICE did what he is so good at doing in scoring number 3. It stayed this way until half time .
Marsh began the second half well and took the game to Vallance but Vallance were still trying to play their football well and contributed to a good game, which was well Refereed by John Nobelmunn (the best referee without glasses in the league) and his assistants although he was VERY LEANIANT not to book, or even send off, two Vallance players who at times seemed to get frustrated and pole axed Swampy, then took Harry out of the play with DELIBERATE fouls. Free kicks were awarded but other than a talk no other action was taken. On the whole it was not a dirty game but these two incidents took a little of the shine off the result, and the Referee should perhaps have taken the further action to make the young Vallance players know that this is not the correct way to play the “ Beautiful Game “ .Chances fell at both ends but were not taken as Marsh ended up with this win. A second double win of the season .
Reported by Clive Goodman