Match Report- 01/09/2010 v Gomersal Cleckheaton (at Grange SC)

Wyke embarked upon their second friendly of the pre-season tonight. It was the unfamiliar astro-turf surface which hosted the game between local rivals Gomersal Cleckheaton. Gomersal and Wyke hadn’t met since Mini Soccer, three years ago, and with Gomersal earning a place in Wyke’s division last season, both teams will have been keen to get one up on the other.

Wyke ran out comfortable winners, with a convincing 5-2 victory over their rivals.
From the off, Wyke looked very good, playing some good balls through to the front men. Mikey and Connor were already proving to be a handful for the Gomersal defence. Wyke were recorded for their early dominance after only 7 minutes. Mikey Brooksbank floated in a brilliant cross, and Nathan had the easy task of nudging the ball over the line.

Gomersal started to counter attack, but Wyke’s defence were holding strong. Dominic Pickersgill and Abel Mariwandi started off well, and made a solid wall, which Gomersal couldn’t get past. Equally Louis Muff and Matty Dignam were outstanding, with nothing at all coming down the wings.

With 14 minutes gone, Wyke doubled their lead. This time the goal was a real screamer!! Mikey Brooksbank lofted the ball 35 yards from a freekick into the top corner, leaving the Gomersal goalkeeper with no chance. Wyke now led 2-0.
With the defence pushing up, the midfield were sat too deep during the second half. Wyke began to find it difficult to play a long ball, and Gomersal started to win every ball in the middle of the park. Wyke’s passing became sloppy and nobody was holding any kind of possession.

18 minutes gone, Gomersal broke through and got a goal back. Josh Clough for Gomersal took the ball past Abel Mariwandi and slotted the ball square past Joe McLoughlin, to another Gomersal player who slotted it into an empty net.

Wyke had now been punished for their poor passing game, and Gomersal kept coming. Luckily Dom Pickersgill was well up for the game and Gomersal didn’t manage to get back into this game. Once again their was excellent and tight defending from Matty and Louis, the full backs and Gomersal couldn’t break through.
Wyke did create plenty of chances when they managed to get hold of the ball. However they were surprisingly few shots from Mikey and Connor. Gomersal were quite tight at the back, and they were very good in the air, meaning Wyke couldn’t get in behind them.

Just before the stroke of half time, Wyke scored another goal. To be fair it was against the run of play, but Wyke had created several chances, and they will have been pleased to go into the half with a 2 goal lead. Jack Played the ball into the box to Nathan who tried to flick the ball over his head, it fell to Connor Rhodes to took a couple of chances, but eventually the ball trickled into the back of the net.

Half Time- Wyke 3-1 Gomersal

Wyke came out for the second half with a different approach, with the midfield pushing forward, leaving Tai Pedder a bit of space to play the ball. Tai, Scott and Nathan played some good football along the ground and had most of the possession in the middle of the park leaving the defence with an easier job.
After only eight minutes of the second half, Connor squared the ball to Tai Pedder 25 yards out who instinctively fired the ball on his left foot past the keeper. A great goal, especially from a right footer. Wyke now had a 4-1 lead.

Minutes later Scott Morris was taken down in the box, and Wyke were awarded a penalty. Connor Rhodes stepped up to take it, but it was pretty poor and trickled straight to the keeper. Connor certainly could have done better, he had been having a great game up to press, and it was a surprise that he missed it.

For the next ten minutes, Gomersal started to attack much more, and it put great strain on the Wyke defence. Again all the play was through the middle, meaning Abel and Dom had a very hard game, but they did well to defend the goal. Joe Mcloughlin had a couple of saves to make, but on the whole it was a good defensive performance.

With ten minutes to go Wyke scored again, a great interception and pass was made from Matty Dignam, to Mikey Brooksbank. Mikey placed a perfect through ball into the path of Connor Rhodes who put the penalty miss behind him by smashing a shot into the back of the net.
Gomersal scored late on in the game to make it 5-2, but the game was beyond doubt at that point. Wyke were the deserved winners.

Goals
Connor x2, Nathan, Mikey and Tai

Man of the Match
Matty Dignam: A top performance from Matty today, he kept battling all the way through the game. He didnt put a foot wrong, and not one attack came down his side.

Manager Comments
I was confident we would we would win the game today, and we certainly did. It is hopefully a good confidence booster for us today. Gomersal were a good team, and we did well to get such a convincing result against them. We defended superbly, and in the second half our midfield played some good football and we did well to hold onto possession. Mikey and Connor were again a constant threat to the Gom/Cleck defence. In all a very good performance.