Match Report 16/01/2011 v Gomersal Cleckheaton (Away)

After a brilliant Cup win last week,
Wyke faced another of their local rivals this week. Wyke got the
better of Gomersal Cleckheaton in a pre-season friendly, and
Gomersal's league position compared to Wyke's surely meant Wyke were
favourites to make it 9 straight wins.




The game finishes 1-1, a very low
scoring game for Wyke Wanderers, and a bitterly disappointing one as
they continue to pursue Northowram for the title.




The first half was fairly level, Joe
McLoughlin came to the aid of Wyke Wanderers a few times, but the
defence held strong, in particular debutant Toby Stanley, playing his
first game back at Wyke since 2005.





Gomersal didn’t offer much in the way
of chances in the first half, with the Wyke defence holding strong,
also at the other end Wyke had a couple of chances, the best falling
to Scott and Connor but both were played into the keepers arms.




Wyke were unlucky not to take the lead.
Connor Rhodes put two shots wide, and Scott Morris had a shot well
saved.




Half Time 1-1




Wyke started the second half brightly,
Michael Brooksbank fed the ball through to Connor Rhodes, who played
a shot into the goalkeeper.




After 10 minutes, Joe McLoughlin was
called into action to make a great save to keep the visitors in the
game.




Nathan Khan and Damien Hields seemed to
have improved in the second half and Wyke started to capitalise in
the middle of the pitch, there were plenty of long balls coming from
Wyke, but the Gomersal defence did a good job to cut them out.




With 20 minutes to go, Connor Rhodes
once again was denied by the goalkeeper, another fine ball from
Michael, but the keeper did well in the 1 on 1 again.




Scott Morris almost broke the deadlock,
after brilliant run down the right flank, and played an excellent
1-2 with Connor Rhodes, but Scott hit the ball into the keeper's
arms.




A very fustrating game for the
Wanderers. Mikey Brooksbank also had a great chance but was denied by
the Gomersal Keeper again.




Connor had another chance to score, but
once again couldnt find the back of the net.




The deadlock was finally broken with 12
minutes to go. Nathan Khan took a free-kick from the edge of his own
six yard box, and Mikey Brooksbank won and broke free through the
defence, it wasnt a brilliant shot but somehow managed to trickle
under the keeper. Wyke now deservedly led 1-0.




Only moments later, Damien Hields'
misplaced pass was collected by the Gomersal Striker who fired it
past keeper Joe McLoughlin who could only get a hand to it, but it
wasn't enough and Gomersal had an equiliser.





Wyke continued to press, Scott and
Mikey both having chances to score, but again it just didnt seem to
want to go in.

The final chance of the game fell to
Connor Rhodes, he did well to nip in and round the keeper but he took
a little to long to shoot and a defender did very well to block.





Wyke also had had a lot of chances from
corners throughout the game, and two were cleared off the line..




This wasn't Wyke's day today.
Especially when the game was cut short unfairly by the referee by
about 5 minutes.




Full Time Wyke 1-1 Gomersal
Cleckheaton.




Goals- Michael Brooksbank (58)




Man of the Match: Joe McLoughlin-
Once again the keeper came to
Wyke's rescue. He made some good saves, but more importantly he did
well to come off his line to pick up the loose balls, and he was a
safe pair of hands for every cross and shot. A top performance once
again.




Comments about the game.




We were all very
annoyed and frustrated after the match, it was one of those games
that didn't seem to want to go our way. I thought defensively we
played well, except for a couple of blips, and our attacking play was
pretty good, but we just didn't take our chances. Our strike force is
usually on fire, but it wasn't to be today. Its one of those things,
but we need to take it on the chin and accept it, forget about it and
get on with the rest of our season... It wasn't a disaster, and all
credit to Gomersal, they played really well! Lets stay positive
boys!!!