IPSWICH WANDERERS 1 v. KIRKLEY 1

RIDGEONS PREMIER LEAGUE

SATURDAY 18TH FEBRUARY 2006

It was a glorious spring-like afternoon as Kirkley were the visitors to Humber Doucy Lane in front of 85 eager souls, including the Kesgrave Ultras. Wanderers manager Jason Dozzell was away on international duty in Canada so Paul Westren was given a start, but otherwise the team was unchanged.

Both teams were  defending the beginnings of an unbeaten run but the urgency of play in the first half hour did not reflect this. However, the referee still had ocassion to put a player from each side in his notebook although it was not a passionate or ill-disciplined game.

Neither side had a goal chance to speak of until Marc Lowe shot from the edge of the area after Paul Westren had pulled the ball back from the by line on 31 mins but Kirkley ‘keeper Attridge was not troubled by this. 4 mins later Attridge was plucking the ball from the back of the net after his skipper, Harewood, neatly headed Bradley Barber’s corner past him when under pressure from opposite number 5 Chris Tracey.

This kicked the game into life and the remaining 10 mins were rather entertaining.

Ipswich Wanderers 1 Kirkley 0

However, this fizzled out when the teams retook the field and, despite their obvious endeavour, things did not much improve.

Goddard was lively up front for Kirkley whilst Bradley Barber, with a free kick, and Ricky Martin, with a 25yd shot, gave Wanderers supporters something to cheer about. Then Goddard brought Kirkley back into the game on 79 mins, rather unexpectedly, when his short run across the corner of the box ended with a shot that flashed past Jamie Stannard and into the far corner. Moments later the same player was in a good position but sliced his shot wide as the visitors could suddenly sense that victory was a possibility.

Last man Matthew Cunningham cleared Wanderers’ lines when challenged by Lawrence and Goddard and C. Chenery’s fierce shot was well saved by Jamie Stannard in the closing minutes.

The players worked hard for 90 mins to make something happen and there were murmurings about the state pitch in post-match analysis but in the end a draw was considered a fair result in an unremarkable game.