Worcester in the Sauce
We went into the final game of our BUSA Halifax Championships group in the hope that a victory would be enough for qualification, but our chances were to suffer two severe blows. First, on Tuesday, a late rule change meant that only the top three would progress. Then, minutes after the end of our win, we discovered the news that Bedford had gained a shock result against Nottingham, pushing us down into fourth position on goal difference.
Although this put a dampener on celebrations of another win, it did not detract from another fine display. Showing the pace and verve that had helped us to claw our way back into contention this term, we went two goals up within 25 minutes with two excellent passing moves. The first ended in Matt Lowe's cross-field ball to Steve Rishworth, whose first-touch lay-off fell into the path of James Redmayne, who drilled the ball in off the foot of the post from the edge of the penalty area. Redmayne, playing in central midfield on this occasion, has now played in every position for us this year, and epitomises the character of the team.
The second goal was better than the first. A one-touch move involving Andy Durnford, Mark Addley and Andy Ratcliffe ended in Os Akkaya's precision pass to release Steve Rishworth down the right. He rounded the keeper before setting up Lowe for the simplest of finishes. Before half-time we took our foot off the pedal allowing our opponents back in by conceding two soft goals.
A stern team-talk from coach Mickey Lewis worked a treat, though, and we came out in the second half playing the sort of football that had put us ahead in the first. We went close a number of times before Durnford played through Rishworth on the hour, and he slid his left-foot shot past the Worcester keeper. However, we conceded a third sloppy goal setting up a grandstand finish.
Akkaya, Ratcliffe and Redmayne took firm control of the game in the middle of the park , and we wasted several chances before the winner came. It came from the unlikely source of a Durnford long throw. Redmayne flicked the ball on at the near post and Rishworth neatly guided the ball with his head into the bottom corner.
With Worcester throwing men forward in search of an equaliser, we were likely to catch them on the break so it proved. Rishworth escaped the static defence once more and coolly notched up his third and the team's fifth.
21st Feb 2002