Report

We should have won this one, no question! Andy took the lead today as this was my final game and he set the lads out to work hard again and put in the spirited performances we had been of late.
We started well and should have been 1-0 up after Conor took on their full back and whipped the ball to the far post but it fell onto Mzie's right foot and he hit it wide.
We looked a threat whilst also defeding heroically, working hard and the lads putting their bodies on the line. This was a must win game for Chapeltown and they started to get tetchy, arguing amongst themselves, with the ref and me (par for the course). They had a few half chances but so did we and we went in level at half-time, 0-0.

Early in the second half they had a good chance to score but Max (filling in for Will in net) made a fantastic one on one save. In the second half though we had a number of chances - Mzie again hit wide from close range with his back to goal, Gianni ran all of thirty yards before unleashing a great long range effort which smacked the post, Markel had a goal disallowed, James caught the keeper of his line but somehow the keeper got something to it and it went agonisingly wide, Gianni again hit a shot destined for the top corner but the keeper again made a great save. In between all this we scored a fine goal, some good build up led to the ball being whipped in to the far post Jayden brilliantly side foot volleyed home and somehow the ref gave offside! I'm not kidding, he must have been 10 yards onside, he just ran past the static defender and scored on the volley. A shocking decision by the ref who by now was too initimidated to give us anything (he admitted after the game he couldn't give it due to the number of supporters!). He also neglected to give us two penalty shouts which most refs would have given straight away. So what always happens on days like this - they sneaked a winner in last few minutes and we lose 1-0. Sods law.

I really felt for the lads today because nothing went for them and to be honest nothing has all season. Day 1 of the season and the farce at Aberford must have been a sign. We've had no luck whatsoever, yet we managed to get to the District Cup Final off the back of sheer hard work. Frustratingly if we had performed as we did today and games such as Wigton Moor (all three games) and Pannal away etc we would have comfortably stayed in this division. Sad day for me as I am now standing down after 5 years in charge and pass the lads over to Andy, under new guidance I am 100% confident the lads will bounce back next season. It is without doubt one of my proudest achievements in life to have set this club up, with this team and to have managed them for 5 years. Our U9s manager Kennie rightly said success can be measured in a number of ways in junior football and in terms of player's developing and being signed our success is unrivalled - too right.