It was another sensational performance this week from the Coal Exchange All Stars. New Town Villa Res looked like being pretty tough opposition and in the opening encounters produced some good attacking football, but the Coalie defence held firm and soaked up the pressure. Lee, playing his second game in goal for the Coalie, used the posession well and feed the ball out to the awesome back four Danny, Scholes, Andy and Chalkie. They in turn supplied quality ball to the midfield quartet of Ollie, Bran, Jez and Jamie, who produced a series of excellent chances for Keithy and Hangover Lee upfront (not sure about the skipper taking our own Michael Owen out on the tiles the night before a big game!!) The first goal came from a strange penalty awarded by a very strange referree, but we weren't complaining. Keith stuck it away. More slick passing football produced chance after chance. Keith notched two more for his hat-trick and Bran slotted one. Roland and Sam came on in the second half and continued the quality passing football. Great game, great result. Cheers to Clivert for running the line, and to our hords of supporters..
It was 'Thrill-a-minute' action at Ashington this week. We have always had open games against A&B Rovers, and this one was just the same. The first half was fairly even with both teams producing some good attacking football. Jez and Ollie battled away in midfield and produced some good openings for Lee and Keith (recently returned from hurricane wedding in the Carribean...congrats to him.) I'm sure Keith had more luck scoring last week!!! Ollie opened the scoring with a rasping shot across the keeper after good build-up work from Jamie and Chalkie in the midfield.
Geoff spent the first half in goal and was untested after solid work from Danny, Andy, Scholes and Hatchet Man in defence. BUT THEN Jez tried some ball juggling in a crowded six yard box and A&B Rovers 80's throwback striker bundled in to score the equaliser. Sweeping half time changes saw Geoff move from Keeper to striker, and Alan come on on the left side of midfield and Bran in the middle. Geoff made an immediate impact with two close range goals. Great work down the right from Jamie. Unfortunately A&B levelled with a close range effort from Charlie the Perm King and a penalty after Simon innocently decapitated one of the A&B players in the area.....'Got the ball ref!!!' A good team performance and a good away point against tough opposition.
It was a cold and blustery day down at Bartons Green, but a dedicated band of Coal Exchange supporters (Clare, Harvey and Emma) turned out to see an excellent battling performance and another great result for the Coalie.
We started well with some good attacking play from new midfield partnership Jez and Ollie. They set up a number of chances for Lee Jacobs and Alan up front. The breakthrough came with some slick passing involving Chalkie, Lee and Ollie, putting it on a plate for Jamie, he slammed in the first goal from 5 yards.
The wet and blustery conditions made life tricky for the defenders, but despite some determined work from the Witterings strike force the Coalie defence, Danny, Andy, Scholes, Simon and debut keeper Lee S, stood firm.
Chris came on for Jamie at half-time and continued to torment down the right wing. Then two injuries: Simon (torn calf and broken hand) and Andy (split nail or something?!?) prompted the introduction of Roland and Sam. The finally winning blow for the Coalie came when debut keeper Lee S threw the ball to Lee J up front. He swung and missed it, a Witterings defender swung and missed it, and their keeper swung and missed it. The ball rolled in to the net to seal a fanstastic battling win for the Coalie. Cheers to Clivert for running the line again!!