WHITTON UNITED v. IPSWICH WANDERERS

RIDGEONS LEAGUE DIV. 1 – 8TH JANUARY 2005

This was an eagerly (or perhaps dreaded) awaited first meeting this season of these two local rivals, made even more interesting as the Wanderers side contained a significant number of players, and management, who were with Whitton last season.
As it turned out, neither side looked as though they wanted to play the game and the result was a great disappointment for the 82 paying spectators. Wanderers won by 2 clear goals and although not dominating the match, did enough to ensure that Whitton were restricted to a few efforts from free kicks, where Ruel Fox, their player manager, looked dangerous.
The game was characterised by niggling and clumsy fouls and wayward passing that would have looked out of place on a Sunday morning. Apart from the goals in the 35th and 85th minutes there was nothing to keep the attention of the spectators away from the bitter cold wind and thoughts of a warm fire and Sky Sports. Soames and Mauge for Whitton were solid in defence, Dozzell and Goldfinch likewise for Wanderers but the midfields seemed unable to get any flowing moves going and the forwards were not as sharp as they should have been.
Given the paucity of the football, both goals were real gems. For the first, Dean Tournay-Godfrey leapt unmarked on the 6yd line to head home past Jones in the Whitton goal after good work by Ricky Martin gave him the room to put over a pin-point cross.

For the second, following constant pressure on the Whitton defence, David Grimwood took the ball to the line and pulled it back for Rene Swann to hammer home his 20th league goal of the season. The remaining 5 minutes of the game had Wanderers warming to their task by testing Jones at every opportunity but the referee brought a welcome end to proceedings before there was further score.

HT Whitton United 0 Ipswich Wanderers 1

FT Whitton United 0 Ipswich Wanderers 2