by Jeff King
Wearside League Clem Smith Bowl – Saturday 3rd September
Chester-le-Street Reserves 6 v 0 Wear United
It was a quick return to combat for these two sides after Chester had beaten Wear 8 – 0 in the League fixture a week ago. A game where Chester took an early lead and then Wear were reduced to ten men.
So, for their first ever competitive game at home in a Wearside League competition, the Reserves were confident of advancing to the next round of The Bowl.
Their confidence was well founded as from the off they dominated the game taking it to Wear from the first whistle and only taking 6 minutes to open the scoring.
Benji Jackson found a pocket of space in the final third and slots a through ball into Jude Anderson who neatly finishes into the bottom left corner.
Wear though showed great resilience thereafter despite constant Chester pressure. With their defence holding firm and clearing the ball at every opportunity they did well to only be one-goal down at the half.
All that hard work in the first 45 minutes though would eventually count for little as Chester fired up by Manager Anthony Johnson’s half-time words came out for the second half in determined and ruthless mood.
Within four minutes of the second half, they double their lead with a stunning 25-yard free kick from Jackson who drove his effort high into the top left-hand corner with impressive style giving the Wear keeper no chance.
On 55 minutes Chester struck again and effectively ended the game as a contest. This time it was substitute Noah Ellis making an impact.
Alex Johnson did brilliantly to keep the ball in play towards the corner flag and then put a cross towards the back post for Ellis to hammer a volley onto the bottom left-hand corner of the net.
It was another substitute who created the fourth goal on 65 minutes. Good build up play from Elliot McClen who had looked lively after coming on saw him dink a ball over the Wear back four for Charlie Loveday.
His mis-hit shot saw skipper Aaron Davidson anticipating well to get to the ball and tap home from 5 yards out.
United went nap on 70 minutes when Wear failed to clear a corner properly and Liam Colledge created space for himself before spectacularly overhead kicking his effort into the Wear net.
The final goal came with 74 minutes on the clock and this time it came from provider Elliot McClen. He picked up a loose ball in midfield, drove forward and then unchallenged unleased a superb 30-yard effort that crashed past the Wear keeper into the top of the net.
Despite going down 6 – 0 to follow-up their 8 – 0 League defeat the weekend before the Bowl match it’s fair to say that overall Wear gave a good account of themselves and kept going for the full 90 minutes.
United though with a dominant second half performance that was needed after a somewhat lack-lustre first 45 minutes did go through in the end in fine style.
TEAM : 1. James Hughes 2. Luke Curry 3. Josh Scurfield 4. Alex Johnson 5. Liam Colledge 6. Aaron Davidson (c) 7. Jay Giles 8. Aaron McGilvray 9. Jude Anderson 10. Benji Jackson 11. Charlie Loveday
SUBS : Elliot MClen, Noah Ellis
SCORERS : Anderson, Jackson, Ellis, Davidson, McClen, Colledge
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