Make Shift

This week an absentee crisis hit Melee for the rematch against Hoylake FC, with injuries, tennis, work and women all causing selection headaches that resulted in two ringers Tom Parker and Jamie bought in from Fozs work making his debut. Mark Fenwick joined the team making his 5th appearance for the club

With lots to play for early in the season the make shift team started with Foz in goal, although this didn't seem to affect Melee who got off to a great start with Jamie opening his account on debut. Hoylake came back into it with a sneaky goal of the inside post before Kev put Melee back up in front.

With Melee playing the better football more goals followed, Jamie again on the scoresheet after some neat play from Mark to set him up and Pils bagged his customary goal with a superb finish. Hoylake came back into the game towards the end of the half leaving Melee leading 4-2

With the team rotating Kev took over the goalie gloves after the break. The game started to become very tiring with Melee working hard to keep with the opposition. Getting pegged back deep into their own half Melee found themselves playing on the counter attack. This didn't seem to work as lots of shots started to come at the Melee end, resulting in two goals for Hoylake, despite good defending from Pils and Foz.

Quickly after the Hoylake goal a lovely bit of skill from Jamie took on two players to slot home giving Melee the upper hand with 5mins left to play. Even after the goal Melee struggled to get out their half, giving the ball away and legs started to tire. With all this Melee dug deep, putting in some last minute tackles and watching shots fly wide and over. It wasn't until the last kick of the game that some poor defending led to a Hoylake player nicking the ball and a week shot bounced into Kev who just didn't save the shot. Gutting end to a truly gusty performance with only a few regulars on show. Thanks to those who turned up last minute

The draw sets up the season nicely with some interesting games to be played out