Stone Old Alleynians headed to the game at unbeaten Shawbury United on Saturday full of confidence after a fine 3-2 win at Wolverhampton Sporting Community in their last match. The match turned out to be an eight-goal thriller which the Old Boys can count themselves extremely unlucky to have lost 5-3.
Manager Matt Smith lamented: ”Our forwards are getting amongst the goals and it was so good to see both mighty Matt Thomas and big Carl Dibden rejuvenated after a few weeks in the doldrums. Unfortunately, it’s the higher quality of the attacking teams at this level that is catching us out at the back. Once we have rectified this problem so that our defence is on full alert at all times I have no doubt that we will soon be able to retain a lead once we get in front.”
The game started at a frantic pace and after three minutes, Carl Dibden ghosted past two defenders to put over a perfect cross for Matt Thomas to crash a header past Ross Dibb, the Shawbury keeper. The lead did not last long, though, as winger Ballard crossed from the right for the Shawbury No.10, Stuart Wilson to place a confident header past Alleynians keeper, Matt Burslem and bring the scores level.
Soon afterwards, the Old Boys came close again as Dibden was put through by Thomas but this time the keeper managed to save his rather tame attempt. With both teams on all out attack, another goal did not take long in arriving when Wilson, spotting Burslem just off his line, lobbed him from fully 50 yards to put Shawbury 2-1 ahead The Old Boys refused to lie down and they fully deserved their equaliser after 22 minutes, when Billy Thorley beat two defenders and then coolly slotted home past the stranded Dibb in the Shawbury goal, making the score 2-2.
After 32 minutes, a poor clearance by the Alleynians defence was seized upon once again by the effervescent Wilson who confidently completed his hatrick to put Shawbury 3-2 in front. However, this was still not the end of the first half scoring when Old Boy Thomas hammered the ball home from close range on 36 minutes after Shawbury had failed to clear one of Adam Tomkinson’s corners, putting the scores level at 3-3.
Old Alleynians brought Dave Latham on at half time to bolster the central defence, and moved Ollie Davies out to left back. For a time, this had the desired effect, but after a break down the left by Shawbury No.6, the resulting cross caused confusion in the Old Boys defence which ended when Davies inadvertently put the ball past his own keeper, putting Shawbury 4-3 in front.
The Old Boys continued to work hard but opportunities to score became less frequent. Thomas did go close after a 20 yard rocket on 62 minutes but Shawbury were looking more threatening. After 74 minutes, Alleynians fullback, Adam Heath, mistimed a challenge leaving the referee little option but to award a penalty. Shawbury No.9, Tom Rogers, confidently sent Burslem the wrong way but Alleynians were let off as his shot hit the post and rebounded along the line, without going in.
With 15 minutes to go, centre-back Tom Hounsell headed home from a corner to give them an unassailable 5-3 lead. It was virtually all Shawbury now and only a fingertip save on to the crossbar by Burslem stopped another goal. The Old Boys did manage to mount the occasional attack and Dibden came close when he just missed from close range with two minutes to go.
Old Alleynians put up a valiant display against a very strong and still unbeaten Shawbury team. Lessons will have been learnt and they can take encouragement from the many Shawbury supporters who said the Old Boys were the best team they’d seen there this season.
[box type=”info” align=”aligncenter” ]Team: Burslem, Heath, Askey, Davies, Taylor, Griffiths, Heard, Tomkinson, Dibden, Thomas, Thorley. Subs: Bigham, Moloney (Griffiths), Latham (Taylor)[/box]
