Apr 24, 2010, 9:05 pm“Styal’s Walking Wounded ‘Wup the ‘Witch”
The prospects didn’t look good when Styal arrived at what hasn’t been a particularly happy hunting ground for the Altrincham Roaders in recent years; with that in mind and on the back of a 7 – 1 humiliation Styal arrived with their manager missing, their centre forwards in plaster casts and the comedy night still fresh in their memories.
As eight members of the Styal squad warmed up in their Fulham shirts, they had the pleasure of watching Middlewich’s 24 man squad equipped with matching bibs, an array of cones and match quality balls under the supervision of the manager and extended coaching staff, the rest of the visitors were still in the changing room trying to put themselves together again in the hope that they might be in some sort of state to start the game – finishing it hadn’t even crossed their minds. The injury list read like an episode of Band of Brothers, Garvey (blisters like dinner plates), Simmo (Groin), Sefton (Groin), Hammy (all sorts wrong with him), Harrison (ankle), Capel (easier to mention the parts of his body not hurting), Marchbank (misplaced his heart – suspected it had dropped down the toilet). To say it was a sorry site is an understatement.
With 3pm getting closer decisions needed to be made about who was fit to start, no one backed down and as Capel was wheeled on to the pitch to lead the team out there was air of confidence flowing through the men in yellow, a win was the only outcome as far as they were concerned and all was needed was a bit of belief and a bit of magic.
As expected Middlewich started the game with nice flowing football, and even though it looked pretty it quickly became apparent it was pretty ineffective against the solid back four, Capel playing through the pain, and after an early scare that he might be forced to hobble off, the nurofen kicked in and a captains’ performance was put in – a boost for the team who started the game second from bottom. Styal grew with confidence as the half progressed and started to realise that there was nothing to fear, the bibs may have looked good in the warm up, but they didn’t count for anything on the pitch and the chances started to fall. Sefton tested the keeper with a superb header, Matty O’Toole, who proved to be too much for the Middlewich defence to handle, also pulled good saves from the keeper. And it was O’Toole’s hard work and class that led to what would be the decisive goal. Released by Garvey down the right the stocky striker twisted and turned is way into the box and his low driven cross was met by Thornton ghosting in at the back post to head the ball home – the 3 points were there for the taking. Simmo worked tirelessly along the line to hold the ball up and bring in the wide men, his only reward for his efforts was a yellow card and an invitation into the ref’s room at half time.
Styal were slow out of the blocks in the second half, lacking shape and organisation, nevertheless the game could have been sealed if it wasn’t for the bobbley pitch that made Thornton’s one on one almost impossible to finish, latching on to another Garvey through ball but failing to convert; two more chances quickly followed but Styal just didn’t want to finish of the tie, and the longer it stayed 1 – 0 the more it looked like Styal might go home disappointed. To their credit they held strong, Osbourne and Kemp were a welcome return to the defence and with Swindells putting in another outstanding performance at the heart of the defence alongside the skipper, thankfully keeper Harrison was left with very little to do, and when called upon he did enough to take the sting out of one close range effort and the evergreen Thornts was there to clear the ball of the line with composure.
Simmo still had time to miss another close range effort before he was given his marching orders, but he made sure he took one of theirs with him, after what felt like at least 8 minutes of added time, the whistle finally blew and the aches, pains and blisters hurt no more. An all round fantastic team performance, with no one leaving anything on the pitch, and in Marchy’s case not leaving anything in his stomach. With Billinge losing and Golborne getting a surprising draw Styal moved out of the bottom two, nevertheless there is still work to do, nothing less than a win is good enough against Gamesley tomorrow night and even then 3 more points still need to be found from the remaining 3 games to ensure safety.
