Division 3 Balcarres Away

The first half kicked off and both teams looked confident about winning the game, and after about twenty minutes the first goal came from Balcarres, whose form over the recent weeks has surprised everyone, and as striker Gary Ode latched onto the ball, under pressure from Darren Ainscough and Amberswood keeper William Hoey narrowing the angle, he took his shot early and hit the ball across the keeper, but William Hoey slipped, but managed to get a hand to it, but couldn't stop the ball from going into the net.

As Amberswood pressed for an equaliser and Balcarres looking more and more confident, there were a couple of half chances for both teams, most notably Shane Clark having a short range shot saved by Balcarres keeper Lee Schofield and Paul Mears shooting wide from long range for Balcarres.

Balcarres soon found themselves with a two goal lead with Paul Mears getting on the score sheet as Gary Ode picked the ball up on the left hand side and went past three Amberswood defenders and drawing the keeper towards him before squaring the ball to Paul Mears to score from close range into an empty net.

Payam Doustani, Dean Ainscough and John Warburton trying desperately to get some goals back with good work going forward, but the ball kept sticking in the mud and they were unable to have the same impact as the previous week, but finally struck back as Payam Doustani collected the ball just before half time and slid the ball through to striker Chris Cunniffe who this time beat the offside trap and as Balcarres goalkeeper Lee Schofield came out of his goal, Chris Cunniffe lobbed the ball over the top of him and the ball dropped into an empty net.

At half time Phil Atherton made a tactical change in formation as he went 4-3-3 and Amberswood were putting more pressure on the Balcarres back three and Payam Doustani being the creator. Amberswood battled and added the pressure, but it looked like Balcarres were more likely to score as they had two shots cleared of the line.

Amberswood made a couple of substitutions, bringing on Sadegh Ramazani and Antony Whitton, and Amberswood started to pile more pressure, with Antony Whitton causing the Balcarres defence problems and Dean Ainscough coming in from the left, as Antony Whitton went clean through only to hit his shot wide and Dean Ainscough nreceiving the ball down the left and cutting inside before unleashing a shot wide. Amberswood were clearly running out of time, when Payam Doustani started to get involved further up the field again, taking two or three players on at a time without getting anywhere, until finally it paid off as he went to burst clear, a Balcarres fouled Payam Doustani on the edge of the box, Dean Ainscough crossed the free kick into the danger area and Antony Whitton rose highest and headed the ball into the top corner of the net for the equaliser.

Amberswood got as much as they deserved from this game, but nearly grabbed a winner in the dying seconds as Payam Doustani went on one of his mazey runs, he cut the ball back from the byeline to Sammer Ahmed, who fired a shot goalbound until Balcarres keeper Lee Schofield threw himself to his right hand side and clutched the ball.

Final Score: Balcarres 2 Amberswood 2 Amberswood will be happier with a draw more than Balcarres because Balcarres will feel they should have won, but performance wise it was equal.

Man Of The Match: Dean Ainscough battled well and took some of the pressure off his fullback and played equally as well going forward and set up the equaliser.