Royals Match Report 2003-04

Shrewsbury Juniors 5-1 Church Stretton
(Case) (Friendly - 29-02-04)

In the first half the Magpies were playing uphill. It was a ding-dong battle in the early stages with some dangerous moves by Shrewsbury ending with a number of shots on goal, all of which were well saved by Jordan Wells. However in the eighth minute a long shot sailed into the top left hand corner of Jordan's goal. Play was held up for a while with injuries first to Jake Watts and then to Jack Case. Both recovered and played on bravely.

Shrewsbury kept on pressing and in spite of more fine saves by Wells it was only a matter of time before more goals were scored. The second goal came from a quick break from Shrewsbury's own penalty box. Shrewsbury's defenders broke up all of Magpie's attacks. Their defenders were quick to crowd into whoever of the Magpies had the ball. Cameron Holtz did, however, manage to hit the crossbar from a tight angle. The first half ended with Shrewsbury 2-0 in the lead.

In the second half the Magpies had the advantage of playing downhill. But it made no difference. In spite of the occasional good move the Magpies were always crowded off the ball. Because of Shrewsbury's style of defending with two or even three players battling for the ball, there were many open spaces which the Magpies failed to exploit with no one running into the open spaces and, especially, by not passing.

Shrewsbury's third goal was a very lucky one. A corner kick struck the back post and bounced into the net. A fourth goal also came after a corner kick but in a more conventional way. On one of the Magpies rare sorties into the opposition penalty box, Jack Case was fouled. He insisted on taking the spot kick himself and made no mistake, placing the ball into the top right hand half of the goal well out of the keeper's reach. More pressure from Shrewsbury yielded a final goal.

Team: Jordan Wells, Kieran Adams, Freddie van Doesburg, Jake Watts, Cameron Holtz, Jack Case.