Men's 5th XI Vs Shrewsbury 5 Dev

Telford travelled to Shrewsbury looking to get back to winning ways against Shrewsbury 5ths/Dev.

Telford set up very similar to how they played against Old Wulfarians, as they expected to have majority of possession.

The defensive line up saw Brent have Freddie & Jacob either side of him with our top performing keeper Alex in goal.

The midfield set up with Dylan, Sam & Aaron out wide and John H & Ewan in the centre. However Ewan played a different game to his normal style, in that he played more defensively to allow John H to push further up the pitch and support our defence when needed.

Up top, top scorer Coler had Abraham & Jack either side of him and off the bat the team was instructed to press high and allow the opposition to make mistakes.

Telford had majority of possession in the first half and had a fair amount of chances. Shrewsbury also had a few chances but Freddie was on a mission today: No one gets past, they can certainly try but no one is getting past him and that’s exactly what he did, all game.

The biggest chance in the first half fell in Telford favour as a ball was hit from left and deflected onto the keepers arm which then fell onto Sam’s arm. Sam then calmly passed the ball into the goal, despite the ball coming off the keeper and arguably being “dangerous play” from the keeper, the goal was ruled out as it was controlled by Sam’s arm.

The halftime whistle was blown and it was 0-0. Although it was frustrating up top, the Telford defence was having a superb time. Alex had little to do as Freddie & Jacob would stop anyone out wide and Ewan & Brent would sweep up and balls that were coming through the middle.

However Ewan made it clear half time: We needed to put more balls into the D to create more chances for us. Before the match drills were setup to work on our shooting/passing inside the D as it’s something the team have needed to improve on since the start of the season … and almost immediately Telford got a goal from the restart.

Aaron made a superb run through the centre and the keeper made a good save from his shot. The ball fell back to Aaron who spotted Sam at the post. Aaron passed it across and Sam once again calmly put it in the goal.

A few minutes later John H passed the ball to Abraham, which may be the easiest assist of the season. Abraham glided past 1, 2, 3 ,,, and to be honest I lost count! Then 1 on 1 with the keeper Abraham slotted the ball between the keeper and made it 2-0!

11 minutes into the 2nd half Coler picked out Jack, who had been relentless in this match - Causing havoc for the opposition defence and ensuring they had little to no time on the ball - Jack used his speed on the right to collect the pass and drove into the D and put it past the keeper to make it 3-0!

Telford were ecstatic and rightfully so. The passing, communication and almost everything went up a gear in this half and they were being rewarded for it.

Dylan on the left had been a perfect link up player from our defence to attack but this time he found himself in a great position at the post and he wasn’t the only one to know this, as Sam passed him the ball and Dylan struck it into the goal. 4-0!

Superb work from the Telford team and at this point Paul Tynan, who has been helping in the dugout the last few matches, was having a hard taking keeping track of who the assists were from as Telford were flying with goals, left right and centre!

Telford then settled at the score line and perhaps lost a lot of concentration as John, the engine, saw a 50/50 challenge outside the D go against him and Shrewsbury were awarded with a short corner. Shrewsbury had their shot blocked but it bobbled back to them and Alex could only block the ball enough to  slow it down as it rolled into the goal. 4-1.

Although the game ended in a win, Telford could’ve easily had a clean sheet. However it served as a reminder that no game is over until the final whistle.

As mentioned at the start, Freddie was absolutely brilliant in this match. For a player who is experiencing his first men’s season, he has really down extremely well, with this match being a highlight of that. Freddie & Jacob were both nominated for M.O.M due to their superb defensive performance (and considering we scored 4 goals, this shows how well they did!), however Freddie just pipped Jacob in the votes and it was given to him.

Onwards to next week where Telford face the league leaders!

Scorers:

Samuel Langford

Abraham Bello

Jack Lamb

Dylan Burrows

Assists:

Aaron Black

John Higginson

Ian Cole

Samuel Langford

M.O.M:

Freddie Preece

Also, Telford's Developing 6th team travelled to Beacon where they won 2-1 with only 11 players! Big well done to those involved in this match too!