13/12/2003
Tyneside Amateur League Division 2

IJLW Brazil
Andrew, Davison, Churchley, Kennedy, Haigh, Mitchell, Paterson, Gurney, Slack, Harrison.

With three players pulling out of the squad on the day of the match, Brazil were left with just ten men. Playing into the wind with a man down ensured it was very difficult first half for the home side but they worked hard and weren’t outplayed. After a quarter of an hour, however, Ryton’s advantage began to tell. A right wing cross was met unopposed by the visiting captain, after he had walked away from his marker, and Brazil were behind. The deficit was soon doubled when a left wing cross was met by Ryton’s striker as he got between defender and goalkeeper.

Despite the strength of the wind, Brazil did manage to get into Ryton’s half and create chances of their own. An excellent passing move found Peter Slack on the left wing and his cross into the box was brought down well by Ben Gurney but he couldn’t keep his shot low enough to trouble the keeper. A good through ball sent Mark Harrison clear, as he beat the offside trap. Faced with a difficult angle, he fired his shot across the goalkeeper who had to dive at full stretch to keep it out.

After this, Ryton had a brief spell of complete domination where good defending and a couple of fine saves by Al Andrew kept Brazil in the game until Ryton’s numerical advantage was used to outnumber the Brazil defence and score an easy third. Slack’s corner, towards the end the half, was met by the head of Dave Churchley who managed to lose his marker with a clever run into the box but didn’t manage to direct the ball goalwards. With the wind behind them in the second half, Brazil felt that they were still very much in the game.

During the interval, the wind dropped slightly but it was still in Brazil’s favour. Even without this advantage, Brazil were better in the second half. Ewan Paterson covered a lot of ground and made a lot of tackles in midfield, as did Harrison up front. All four of Brazil’s defenders made some important challenges, with Mark Kennedy, in particular, showing his strength. Churchley, the man of the match, intercepted numerous passes and was quick enough to clear up when the ball was played over the top.

Both sides struggled to create any good chances in the second half and Brazil’s biggest scare came from a mistake. Andrew came well out of his area to clear the ball but he slipped and sliced it straight to Ryton’s forward. With his keeper stranded, Churchley positioned himself between the ball and the goal and managed to head away the early shot.

With time running out, Slack was pushed up front and made a tremendous run beating three Ryton defenders but his pass was over hit and sent Harrison too wide. With three weeks until the next match, Brazil are hoping that some of their injured players will recover enough help Brazil’s new year push for points.