Match Report- 27/02/2011 v Batley Phoenix (Away)

After a week off, and on the end of their last disastrous
result, Wyke had a point to prove today against a strong side. Last time Wyke
and Batley Phoenix met it was a tightly contested affair with Wyke scraping a
3-2 win.


This time around Wyke managed a 10-7 victory, as usual with
Wyke games there were a lot of ups and downs and loads of goals.




The Wanderers came out all guns blazing, and within 80
seconds they had a lead. Nathan Khan slid through a ball to Michael Brooksbank, who proved far too
strong for the last defender, sliding the ball easily past the goalkeeper.

Wyke
led 1-0. Another great start for the wanderers.




Only a minute later, Wyke added a second, Michael broke down
the right wing and cut in, his shot was well saved by the keeper, but Connor
Rhodes pounced on the rebound, giving Wyke a very early two goal lead.




Wyke were making attacking look easy. Nathan Khan had a free
reign in the midfield running with the ball across the middle of the 18 yard
box, he fed another ball to Michael Brooksbank who did well to curl the ball
around the keeper into the back of the net, giving Wyke a 3-0 lead with only 7
minutes gone.




Less than a minute later Michael was involved again, this
time firing down the right wing and popping a cross into Connor Rhodes, who was
unmarked and had the easy task of tapping the ball past the keeper. Wyke 4-0 to the good.




Wyke continued to attack in great strength and threatened to
put plenty more goals away. Scott Morris had a shot over the bar, and both
Michael and Connor came close to completing their hatricks.




Batley created very little attacking chances, with the back
four holding strong. Calvin Barker did well to keep a clean sheet early on,
making some safe saves, but Tai and Joe at the back were pretty safe and Batley
couldn’t get a breakthrough they desperately needed.




19 minutes gone, Wyke took a 5-0 lead. Michael Brooksbank
whipped in a corner and the Batley Phoenix defender put it in his own net.




And then 3 minutes later the Wanderers made it 6-0. Joe
McLoughlin adavanced with the ball from defence and played through Michael
Brooksbank, who once again proved too good for the last defender, and one on
one placed the ball past the keeper, a well deserved hatrick for him.




One hatrick led to another with 27 minutes gone, Michael
with another cross and Connor with a very good finish. Wyke were playing some
of the best football they ever had, and looked so strong all over the pitch.


Just before the stroke of half time Batley Phoenix managed
to grab a goal back, Calvin Barker made a very good save from a shot, but the
Phoenix striker just beat Joe McLoughlin to the ball and shot into an open net.




Half Time- Wyke 7-1 Batley Phoenix. Wyke have totally
dominated the half, a brilliant performance from them.



Wyke had played football
from the back, with Jake Gilderdale doing well to get wide and moving play
around the back four. The two strikers were in fine form both netting a
hatrick, and as usual Damien and Nathan were so strong in the middle, absolutely
dominating the middle of the park.




Wyke had a bad start to the 2^nd half, with Batley
Phoenix coming out to prove a point. A mistake from keeper Calvin Barker gave
Batley a second goal after 3 minutes.




However Wyke hit back almost instantly. Michael Brooksbank
went on a brilliant run with the ball, and cleverly rounded the last defender
and poked the ball into the far corner, giving Wyke an 8-2 lead.




Then Batley Phoenix really got on top of the game for the
next 10 minutes. The Wyke team unit seemed to totally collapse as Batley tore
through the Wyke defence netting an incredible 4 goals in 9 minutes. The
Wanderers just didn’t seem to be able to hold onto the ball and their morale
had hit the ground. Wyke were in free-fall, but surely after leading 8-2 they couldn’t
throw away the three points.




Michael moved back into defence, and did brilliantly to
steady the defence. Wyke’s performance did start to gradually improve, although
Wyke can count themselves a little lucky that Batley didn’t add to the now
close 8-6 result.




All credit to the Wyke lads, who had managed to regain some
of the composure they had earlier in the game, and for the last 10 minutes, they
looked much better, Jake and Tai had greatly improved and now the defence
looked more solid.




Wyke then started to play some good counter attacking play,
Scott Morris and Connor Rhodes were on their own

but they did still create some
good attacks. Scott almost scored and Connor had a couple of chances, Wyke were
desperate to score just to hopefully put the game beyond doubt. The goal came
with 8 minutes to go. Scott gave the ball to Connor Rhodes on the edge of the
18 yard box, and Connor knocked the ball wide and smashed it into the net, such
an important goal for the wanderers. His 4^th goal, a brilliant
performance from the forward.




Wyke then scored again, Scott Morris took the ball from
another counter attack and played a through ball to Connor, he rounded the
keeper and placed into an open net for his 5^th goal of the game, and
to give Wyke the win.




There was late drama in the last minute with Michael giving
a blatant penalty away to Batley Phoenix, which was scored.




Full Time- 10-7 to Wyke.



Goals




Michael Brooksbank (2, 7, 22, 34), Connor Rhodes (3, 8, 27,
62, 69) Own Goal (19)


Man of the Match



Connor Rhodes: Connor had a fine game today, he kept
coming to the teams aid with such important goals. He scored pretty much all of
his chances, which proved to be very important.




Michael Brooksbank: Mikey had a great game today, not
only scoring 4 goals, he assisted another 4, and his performance in defence
steadied the back four which potentially won the game for Wyke.





Dave’s Comments


The first half we looked awesome, we have honestly never
looked as good! However we seemed to lose something in the second half. We don’t
seem to be able to handle letting a couple of goals in. After we went to 8-3,
we just panicked and gave up. We can’t do that lads! We did the same against
Linthwaite, what we need to learn is once we let a goal in, we forget about it
and get on with the game. That bad 10 minute spell could have cost us the game,
However, well done for managing to get back our mojo for the last 15 minutes!
But we have won by 3 goals against a good side, so we should be very happy with
the result!