AFC DIDSBURY 2 VS INTER CHEADLE WEST / ECSFL DIVISION 3 (06/04/17 - DIDSBURY SPORTS GROUND, DIDSBURY)

AFC DIDSBURY 1
INTER CHEADLE WEST 0

AFC DIDSBURY: Carr, Plowright (Owen), Birtwistle, Reynolds, Bermingham (Garcia), Wallace (Gowrie),
Rohman (Quaye), English, Quinn, New, Menghini.

GOALS: Menghini
ASSISTS: English
MAN OF THE MATCH: Reynolds

DIDSBURY SHOW THEIR BITE ON A THURSDAY NIGHT

With the days growing longer it was time to for the 2’s to play catch up on the fixture list and aim to build on their recent post-Christmas good form. With the opposition (Inter Cheadle) just 2 points ahead in the table, it was going to be a hard-fought contest, the chance to leap frog them in the table left a lot at stake.

Despite Adam Musson inexcusably setting the Teamer map to the wrong location, all squad members still managed to make it in valuable time for kick off and the squad looked strong for their first mid-week encounter of the season.

With a cool breeze and a level, dry pitch the conditions were perfect for the flowing, passing football that the club strives for. The first half was mostly positive. Didsbury started strong, the central midfield trio of Conor Quinn, Joel English and Jack Wallace managed to control the flow of play and leave the opposition frustrated. The defence were rarely tested early on but when called upon were direct and uncompromising.

Despite the positive play and occasional promising run, the final ball was lacking and the only decent chance of the half fell to the talisman Ross Menghini, who leant back and hit it clean over the bar. His squandered chance being sweetly followed by side line jeers reminding him of his 6-month goal hiatus…………. would this be another day of frustration for the Fernando Torres of yester-year.

The half time opportunity for reflection and planning was unfortunately not put to effective use.  Ollie Quaye was distracted texting Claude Birtwistle’s missus. 2nd team gaffer, Ciaran Bermingham, gave advice only fellow paddy, Quinn, could understand and Matt Kennedy decided to sink morale by reminding Wallace of his 5% pass completion rate. Musson and Colin McDonald tried their best to impart pearls of wisdom, but the team were left looking as dead-faced as if they’d just sat through one of Menghini's team building speeches.

Needless to say, the team came out slow and were on the back foot for the first 10 minutes of the second half, to quicker, hungrier opponents. Pressure mounted as Nathan Carr’s goal kicks were as short and limp as James Leighton’s cock.  Eventually a through ball made its way to the opposition centre forward who managed to miss an open net from 2 yards out………Finally, Didsbury had the wake up call they needed.

Dave Reynolds and Birtwistle stepped up to nail the goal kicks, James Plowright had a rush of adrenaline and picked a fight with a bystander to let them know we meant business and Carr made up for his limp kicks with some big stops and assertive collections. The midfield also started to reassert themselves and the attacking chances for Didsbury started to come once again. Gaz New came close with a dazzling lone run. Menghini again squandered a couple of half chances and just when you were questioning whether we could still get a half decent sum for him in the transfer window......... a loose ball in the final third fell to English, seeing Menghini in space he nodded it through. Despite the demons on his back, Menghini kept a cool head and drilled home from just inside the box. Silencing his critics and now likely to secure an extension to his coveted AFC Didsbury contract.

With a narrow 1 nil lead, the final 20 minutes were always going to be tense. Didsbury held their nerve and looked solid at the back with Reynolds leading by example with a brick wall, man of the match performance. Late on, BIrtwistle's enthusiasm got the better of him in the Didsbury penalty area, as he wrestled the opposition striker down from behind with a limb-shattering assault; hearts sank as we awaited the sound of the referees’ whistle, thankfully the ref must’ve had a mini stroke as he denied seeing anything and the game went on.   

With the final stages upon us, emphasis should have been on dictating a slow pace to the game to kill off the dying minutes, Jonny Owen, however, seemed to have also had a mini stroke and was playing as if we were one nil down, running to chase the ball down as soon as it was out of play and throwing it back in as quick as his nimble legs could manage.

Ultimately the Didsbury resolve was too robust and as the final whistle sounded, the AFC Didsbury massive could relish in a hard fought but ultimately well deserved victory, confident that there was a solid platform to build on to secure a solid mid table finish in their debut season.

Words by Joel English

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