MATCH REPORT - SAT 23 JAN

ROCKETS 7 - 6 CHESTER NOMADS

12 months ago we lost 0-12 to Nomads in our first 'Rockets' game. 4 months ago we lost 0-4 to Nomads but deserved much more. Today we beat them 7-6, playing their better team who have been playing in the 'A' league all season.

BIG PROGRESS and credit to the boys!

We started pretty well today, scoring first through George who slotted nicely with his trade mark left. In fairness then Nomads played some nice football to go level, then 2-1 up before Harry got us back level at 2-2 firing into the top corner.

The next two quarters saw us drop off a little too much and we gave Nomads best player too much time on the ball. Coupled with two own goals from crosses after giving the ball away cheaply we were a little unlucky to go into the final quarter 2-6 down!

In the final quarter we REALLY woke up. We asked the lads to raise the tempo and take more shots and the boys really responded (WOW)! We got back to 5-6 with goals from Finlay, Bailey and Harry and William was unlucky with a couple of long range efforts. Finlay finished a three man move which was the goal of the game.

At the back we tackled with a lot more bite and our composure on the ball was excellent. Hugo made a string of saves and his kicking today was perfect - a nice tactic on a small pitch!

The boys really felt they could get something from the game with 5 minutes to go and in particular Bailey was covering every inch of the pitch and Harry was finding and staying in space in the striker role.

We got level through Finlay after a long ball from Hugo was controlled brilliantly.

With a minute left we went ahead 7-6!! Harry was put through and fired low to complete an epic comeback and his own hat-trick. If I hadn't been refereeing I would have celebrated like Jurgen Klopp! 

All the boys were MOTM today - a lot of them had their best games so far for Waverton. The award and next weeks captaincy went to Charlie for his effort, desire and covering play. Lots of brilliant goals were scored but Charlie really controlled our defence with the excellent Alex and William.

When we do the simple things well (not all going to the ball, simple passing and moving) we are great. We have some really skilful and fast players who will hurt any opposition when they hold space, trust their team mates and wait for the ball.

We can really kick-on now as we know when we play like we did for large periods of the game today that we can compete with any of the teams in the area.

We welcome Xander to the Rockets squad from next weekend. Xander has great quality and takes us to 12 players which is the number we want looking ahead to the next few seasons.

Thanks
Rob

ps. if I've got some of the goal timings or scorers wrong above then I'm sorry about that - it was tough to keep up with the scoreline!