Wakefield & District Sunday Football League (Division Two)

Horbury W.M.C ------------------------------------------------------------------3
Wakefield Athletic ‘A’-----------------------------------------------------------2

Wakefield Athletics second string kicked off their 2007/08 season with a disappointing loss away at Horbury W.M.C.

The visitors started brightly and dominated possession in the early stages of the game and deserved their lead when a neat midfield combination between Michael Moore and Sam Murphy fell to Rob Pick who dispatched the ball neatly past the home custodian after 20 mins.

The goal sparked Horbury into life and they were unlucky not to draw even before half time when good pressure down the right resulted in Steve Draper deflecting a cross goal wards, only for Jim Hardisty to produce a point blank reaction save from the top drawer.

The 2nd half was a mirror image of the first, the visitors coming out and again dominating play. 10 minutes into the half and a Mike Moore solo run carved open the home rearguard and as the home keeper advanced to narrow the angle, Moore squared his pace to give Simon Newey the simplest of tap in’s for a 0-2 Wakefield lead.

Further Wakefield pressure from a well worked free kick put Murphy through, but he was disappointed to see his neat lob come back off the woodwork which would have all but sealed the points for Wakefield Athletic.

Credit to the home side who never gave up and when an error by Simon Walton presented an easy opportunity, it was neatly slotted away and the deficit was reduced to one with 15 minutes left on the clock.

All the momentum was now with the home side and on 80 minutes a corner was met by the home skipper who directed a powerful header past the helpless Wakefield rearguard.

Wakefield’s misery continued when they were caught out of position at the back before a scrambled ball was eventually put away into the roof of the net by a well offside forward.

There were positive performances from Darren Barnes and David Markwell, but the West Yorkshire Sports and Social Club Man of the Match award went to Wakefield Athletic Captain Tom Pick

 (Sun 2/09/07).