The Fall and Rise of Wirral U14’s

After the drubbing by AK last week I wasn’t really looking forward to more of the same from Chester. In true Reggie Perrin style as I left the house this morning Mrs W Said “Have a nice day at the Club, Darling.” To which I replied “I won’t!”

As ever, it’s the early bird that catches the quick brown fox, and being first there I found out that the U16 had cancelled their fixture meaning that we were the oldest age group at home. So not only were we playing on the front pitches but we were to have our first ever game on the first team pitch. Honour of honours!

After placing all the kit in the Technical Area (oooh get us!) most of the players got stuck into some heavy duty messing around. By 10 past 10 we were only missing one player. Upon his belated arrival Greggo too dropped his bag in the technical area and factually stated “Eleven minutes late, escaped puma at Clatterbridge roundabout”.

The starting team was named and there were silent nods of agreement apart from George and Twigs who said “Great” and “Super” in quick succession

The warm up went well and, as we were on the first team pitch, there was another treat in store. We trotted off to the changing room for a heated debate and then the players ran out onto the pitch ready for action, tails high.

From the kick off the Wirral players showed their determination to win. Wirral chose to play with the wind and the kick was received cleanly by Wirral who immediately put pressure on the Chester line. Wirral’s forwards exerted sustained pressure on Chester, drawing in their defenders to such an extent that gaps appeared in the Chester line. The ball came along the line from G-Man to Woodsy to Joe to Will who broke through the gap to score. These early phases of play were to show the pattern for the rest of the game.

Every silver lining has a cloud and after Wirral had run in a couple more as a result of moving through the hands to Will and Jamie, Chester managed to get a try back as a result of a missed tackle. Wirral’s response was mature and they stayed on top of their game soaking up pressure from Chester in their own 22 only for Will to make a break and score once more. Soon after Wirral applied the pressure once more for Woodsy to take a pass from 10 metres out and dance through the defence to dot it down, converted by Will.

Conman had taken a knock in the build up to this move and was still flat-out after the conversion. Pebs, our resident first-aider, dutifully trotted on to the pitch and stared at Conman for a moment deep in thought and then asked “Do you find you have a nasty taste in your mouth, a banging headache, you’re sweating profusely and keep hallucinating about Miley Cyrus twerking?” Conman was amazed and spluttered “That’s extraordinary, Pebs! That’s exactly how I feel!” Pebs, looking into the middle distance muttered “Yes, me too. I wonder what it is? Here’s two asprin.”

Wirral made numerous changes at half time, it’s never too late for a leopard to change horses mid-stream. Most of the forwards changed over and Hensy took to fly-half with Woodsy going to full-back, Tay and Ben going to the wings. On two occasions Tay was sooo close to running in a try. Further experience will bring glory I am certain.

Further well-worked phases by Wirral took them up the pitch once again and from 5 yards out Twigs dinked a lovely pass to Arrold who bullocked his way over the line to touch the ball down and add to the tally. Chester made another score but Wirral had not finished yet. Joe had made some fantastic runs throughout the game, taking two defenders or more to stop him on every occasion, and he was finally rewarded with a try after bouncing through a number of stern Chester tackles from 30 yards out.

Today was a true team performance. The players played for each other and the team and they took responsibility. The outcome was success against tough opposition. The whole of the squad should be proud of their performance and should remember that if they play for the team then the whole of the team will benefit. Well done, fellas.

Great, Super!