by Jeff King (With Thanks to Colin Wotherspoon)
Wearside League - Clem Smith Bowl - 1st Round
Willington F.C. 5 v 3 Chester-le-Street United Reserves
A young reserve side went to top of the table Willington who are undefeated so far this season and just like the league game earlier in the season could easily have come away with the victory.
Similar to United's last visit there in the League back in August they were undone when they completely collapsed for an 11 minute period between 6 mins and 17 mins allowing Willington to have 3 clear shots inside our own penalty box that Rilie Irwin in the United goal could do nothing about.
United's age and lack of real characters showed through inside this mad 11 minutes. The rest of the first half was a case of United trying to settle down and keep the ball for longer periods.
On the odd occasion which they did it resulted in them having 2/3 good chances that they failed to hit the target with compared to Willington who when they got the opportunity’s they hit the target on 3 occasions.
Going into the break 3-0 down seemed like a step forward which should never ever be the case. The coaching staff reminding the team at the half about the desire and hunger to do the basics in football while trying to get their passing game going.
United could easily have made all 3 changes with the subs at half time but were told if they got the fundamentals of football right, first work rate, desire, hunger, communication then they could get at Willington's full backs more and create 2v1s and 1v1s in wide area would be their best form of attack.
To be fair the team responded to the call from the kick off in the second half and pulled their first goal back on 46 minutes. A great cross from Harvey Lawrence was met with a great header from Kymani Severin that went in off the underside of the bar.
The goal lifted United and they started to believe in themselves again and were now on the front foot pushing to really get back and they made their first substitution on 55 minutes Gustavo Morais replacing Jack Barker.
This allowed United to bring Lawrence back into the midfield 3 and they really stepped up going forward with Lawrence heavily involved in everything they did.
The United second goal came through good work from Severin on the right hand side and Leo Fasuan arrived late in the box to finish from close range and Chester were now really back in the game.
Severin soon had them level again with a bullet header from a Morais corner to make the score 3-3. At this stage there likely to be only one winner as the game progressed.
But 10 mins after United got level Willington broke down United's right side with their winger getting away from Joe Sykes. United allowed their central midfield player to run past their own 3 central players and he arrived to get on the end of the ball into the box and finished well.
It was a cruel blow for Chester and in truth one they never recovered from and 5 mins from the end of the game Willington got a 5th to seal their passage into next round of The Bowl.
Other subs introduced by United were young Harry Garvey who replaced Jonathan Beattie on 70 minutes and did well in the time he was on and Joe Guest replaced Fasuan but didn't get any opportunity’s to influence the game.
Head Coach Colin Wotherspoon gave his post game thoughts and assessment of his side's performance.
"Overall as the manager of this young side on this occasion i had mixed emotions at full time! One I was still hurting from our first half performance but also incredibly proud how this young group of top lads performed second half to surprise everyone and almost win this game."
SCORERS : Severin 2, Fasuan
MAN of the MATCH : Kymani Severin - Wotherspoon's comments stating, "He has real ability and when he puts it into the game he is a real handful for any defender. Plus his 2 headers today were very good for a wide player."
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