Stone Old Alleynians 2-0 Wyrley
Late goals from Carl Dibden and Danny Kocyigit were enough for the Alleynians to see off Wyrley and maintain their winning start to the season on Saturday.
In an unusually scrappy affair, the Old Boys struggled impose themselves early on, and looked uncomfortable as the visitors pressed the ball all across the pitch. In a first half bereft of any real chances, it was still the Alleynians who looked the most likely to break the deadlock. Luke Askey broke forward from his centre back position in an effort to force the play, and combined well with Chris Heard and Dibden, before the latter fired his effort straight at the goalkeeper.
Minutes later, Askey found Thomas with a pinpoint diagonal, only for the youngster to cannon his shot against the crossbar. The Old Boys’ pressure finally paid off with just 15 minutes remaining as Griffiths found Dibden with a smart pull-back from the right, and the forward thumped a low volley underneath the sprawling goalkeeper for his fourth goal in two games.
A tiring Wyrley launched a rare attack in an effort to level the scores, and the otherwise excellent Askey slipped to allow the visiting no.10 a run at the penalty area, only for the covering Hewitt to force an error from his opponent and ensure stand-in ‘keeper Lewis Paglia continued a relatively trouble-free debut.
In the 85th minute, the industrious Dibden ran through on goal, only to be brought down attempting to round the goalkeeper. Substitute Danny Kocyigit confidently blasted home the resulting spot-kick and ended any hopes Wyrley had of stealing a point from the game.
“This has been the least impressive of our three victories so far,” said Smith afterwards. “But to grind out a win against a hard-working side when we weren’t at our best shows we have character. Luke Askey was our man of the match today, and we’ll be looking to continue this winning run when we tackle Ellesmere in the FA Vase next week.”
Stone Old Alleynians: Paglia, Hewitt, Wilson, Askey, Bigham, Thorley (Kocyigit), Buckley (Whalley), Heard, Griffiths, Thomas (Matthews), Dibden
Staffs County Senior League Division Two
Stone Old Alleynians Res 8-3 Cannock Utd
A high scoring game saw the Old Boys county league side fire 8 past Cannock Utd. After leading 5-2 at the interval, they added three more and conceded another in the second half to continue Kev Warrilow’s excellent start as manager. Goalscorers for the Old Boys were Dan Farrelly (3), Adam Griffin (2), Mike Meszaros, Luke Matthews and Sam Hodgkinson.
