Wellington United Salmon 3- University Unicorns 9

Wellington United Salmon 3- University Unicorns 9

Half time (0-4)

Melrose

Scorers

Craig (2)

Danny

MOM

Lane Nichols (3pts)

Michael Ashby (2pts)

Stephen Jessup (1pt)


Salmon turned up for round two on a grassy Melrose with many of the lads who drew with JJs away, meaning we had to call on Danny for a hand and had a very light subs bench, with Stephen Jessup taking the Whistle in the first half to warm up.


We managed to compete for a good 30 minutes or so, and only conceded after Adam misread a bouncing ball, letting it land at their striker’s feet. He duly dispatched it for 1-0.


There it stayed for a long while, and although we attacked down the right through Steve Westcott and the left through Ashby we didn’t manage a single shot all half. Uni on the other hand started to find a passing groove and scored three quick goals before the break to effectively kill of the tie; this was doubly the case as Salmon spirits were flagging and without a single shot it looked unlikely we’d come back.


The half time talk was all about forgetting the score line and getting stuck in and enjoying the game. It seemed to work, since within 5 minutes of the restart, we had mustered 3 chances.


All this was undone by a combination of the defence standing off to let their strikers run with the ball and their strikers having an unnerving ability to find the net. Three more quick goals had the Salmon reeling at 7-0.


That’s when the famed, but oft unseen, Salmon fighting spirit kicked in. The midfield started to gel, with Lane, Steve W and Danny all finding each other’s feet. A quick ball to Craig’s feet had him turn in the box and find the lower left corner for 7-1- an unlikely comeback perhaps? Craig soon enough hit the bar again and Danny was pinging range finders on target but within reach of their keeper.


Not to be, two more goals from their lot had us staring down the barrel of our fourth double figure hiding. This seemed inevitable when their ref awarded a 50-50 hand ball penalty, after some heated discussion their striker fluffed the chance, hitting the bar. This seemed to spark the salmon back to life. Danny was set free and slotted home past the keeper, before the Salmon finished the game with a goal fo real quality. Jessup started the move from right back, passing to a deep lying Craig who found Danny; Fulton and Ashby drew their defenders wide with good runs and Danny and Steve wall-passed into range before Steve rolled the ball into the Skippers path for a 20 yard screamer.


It was justly deserved and showed what we are capable of with a bit of wit and polish. Although the score sheet makes for sad reading those that were there were buoyed by the fight back.


Three MOM points to Lane who out himself about and battled for the 80 minutes he played, 2 points for Ashby who created plenty of chances. 1 point to Steve who reffed well and then showed plenty of positive attitude at right back in the 2nd half.


With a quick turn around against fellow cellar dwellers BNU this Wednesday we have to put the negatives out of mind and pick up the positives.