Peover vs D&C ATHLETIC

Peover 4-0 D&C

Sunday 13th September 2009
Peover Park

With the new fine system in place D&C look to be going to the Bahamas with their off season tour as the winding roads of Cheshire again managed to fox the highly intelligent members of the squad causing a few late arrivals.

This appeared to show on the field as D&C started slowly but steadily nonetheless. There seemed to be relatively few chances early on for both sides with Peover looking slightly more dangerous.

After 15mins the D&C captain, Nick Hughes, received a nasty facial [injury] from a clash of heads and had to be subbed off to go to hospital with a broken nose. The team missed the solid anchor in front of the back four and goals followed. The first came courtesy of a missed tackled by vice-captain, Gaz Harley, in the penalty area through which Peover's striker calmly finished past Adam Cummins near post on 20mins.

D&C stayed united and worked together for their chances. Atem Eyong nearly converted a well placed cross from a Tom Owen free kick, narrowly heading wide from 5 yards out. Striker, Mike Burt, also had a couple of shots narrowly missing wide.

However, Peover were 2-0 up before half time when the referee missed an off-side call and then recovering defender, Owen, miss timed the interception of the cross to which the Peover star striker chipped the ball over Cummins leaving Owen in the netting trying to redeem his mistake. A relatively united D&C then began to bicker again going into the half leading to a hairdryer treatment from gaffer, Andy Barlow. HT 2-0.

The second half didn't see much improvement with most of the play going Peover's way early on. Within 10mins, Peover were 3-0 up thanks to loose marking on the left hand side allowing a bobbling strike to skim off the dirt and make its way in off the back post with little Cummins could do. That being said, when called into action Cummins showed why he is regarded as one of the best Goalkeepers in the division making repeated camera saves.

D&C then changed to a 4-3-3 formation in an attempt to push for some goals to make the game more interesting. The change appeared to spark some life into the team and Eyong had a few chances to get some efforts at the opposing Goalkeeper were it not for some dubious challenges (not that he wasn't lucky to not be carded himself.) D&C brought on some fresh legs up front in Paul Watkins after 70mins.

However, with D&C pushing forward, Peover took their chances on the counter and this paid off again when they won a corner on 75mins. With the new formation D&C were left a man short when marking from corners, despite being shouted they remained a man down and one unmarked player managed to poke a toe at the ball and put it in from 5yards.
D&C had a few chances late on with Eyong crashing a header into the crossbar and Harley having a shot whisker past the post.

All in all, D&C had a mediocre to poor outing. All players know they have things to work on and this will surely come with match fitness. With lots of new players the team needs time to gel together. This being said, the team was surprisingly supportive of one another and apart from a couple of occasions were a million miles from the bickering team they have been in pre-season friendlies of late. Some pros and negs to take from this game but D&C should definitely not be disheartened by this result.

Onwards and upwards.

GK - Adam Cummins
RB - James Wallis
LB - Dean Couling
CB - Tom Owen
CB - Jake Taylor
RM - Nick Kiefer (Paul Watkins, 70)
LM - Martyn Barlow
CM - Nick Hughes (C) (Cole Smith, 15)
CM - Gaz Harley
CF - Atem Eyong
CF - Mike Burt

Unused Subs - Andrew Barlow


TO