The Reserve team played out a scoreless home draw against a Witheridge team who started, and finished, the day ten points ahead in the league.
When asked to revive the Reserve team match reports I was asked to ‘list the scorers, main action and anything entertaining’ – however, as this isn’t Tristram Shandy I’ve decided against a blank page approach and will none the less make some comments about the match.
The ten-point differential between teams wasn’t obvious with Cullompton largely dominant, particularly with some excellent football in the first half hour. Half chances came and went with Fin continuing his run of form in the middle of the pitch, Oliver Simkin injecting flashes of momentum and Tobin’s running with the ball all contributing. However, surely the most satisfying moments of the first half were seeing Callum Wood making his first start following a long-term injury with his incisive passing and clever movement.
An unfortunate injury to the Witheridge captain after half an hour led to a lengthy delay and seemed to suck the momentum from the game, a pattern which was to assert itself over the remaining hour. Witheridge moved to a lone striker in the second half who become more isolated than Boris’ leadership. As Witheridge defended deep with numbers Cullompton began to resemble Russian troops amassing on the Ukraine border of the 18 yard box with an implied threat of attack which we’re still awaiting (let’s hope it stays like that in Ukraine).
Substitutes were made with Liam Davis a solid foundation in midfield throughout the second half and Luke Coombes making one dashing run across the Witheridge defence when he came on, but good opportunities remained limited with the best probably falling to Witheridge on the break. As Pat’s touches were limited in the Cullompton goal he was not even able to repeat his feat of scoring from his own area as he did the week before.
The game gradually staggered to its death with two fatigued teams and a few hold-ups for injuries as there remained plenty of sound and commitment, rather limited fury in a fairly contested game but the abiding memory of the day will be of it signifying nothing, if not a blank page.
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