Eagles Extinguish Badger's Cup Hopes

WCFC U15s The Badgers were comprehensively beaten at home for the 3rd time in a row by Trowbridge Town at a sunny Northbrook on Sunday. The Badgers started the game 4-4-2 with 9 of the same 11 that started the 6-1 victory over Westbury the previous week. The Badgers made a strong start with Bailey surging down the left from full back forcing a corner, from which the Eagles keeper made a sharp save close in with his feet from a shot from Nathan. Unfortunately, that proved to be as good as it got for the home team in the first half who were stunned by two quick goals from Trowbridge. After 8 minutes a hopeful long ball down the centre bounced over the Badger defence and the Eagles striker ran through to plant the ball past a helpless Will in the Badger's goal. Just 3 minutes later it was 2-0 in an almost carbon copy, with another move which cut through the heart of the Badger's defence. It became obvious that the strong sun low in the sky straight into the eyes of the Badgers was causing real problems for the defenders seeing the ball. Bad became worse on 15 minutes when from a corner the ball made it's way across to the far post where it was nodded home for 3-0. Shell shocked, the Badgers made a substitution with Theo coming on to add more bite in midfield where The Badgers were being outnumbered. Slowly, they got more into the game without really finding any fluency going forward. On 30 minutes, the Eagles completed an extraordinary half for them with another goal to make it 4-0 and ending the most disappointing half for a long time for the Badgers.

The Badgers made a tactical switch at half time going to 3 at the back with Theo dropping in at left back to release Bailey into a centre defensive midfield role, Louis introduced up front to give more physical presence, Eddie replacing William in goal and Joe on right midfield. With the halftime hair dryer ringing in their ears, the changes along with now playing with their backs to the sun led to a much improved second half from the Badgers. Winning more first tackles all over the pitch, they started to press the Eagles back. Jack had a shot from just inside the box just wide but for all their pressure they struggled to create many clear cut chances. Eventually, Man of the Match Bailey found space on the left hand side to cut in along the by line and from a tight angle found the bottom corner to make it 1-4. It proved to be just a consolation however, with The Badgers cup dreams ended for another year. Overall, despite showing great character and resilience to 'win' the second half, it was a strangely disappointing flat team performance from the Badgers who never got going or recovered from a poor start dealing with the sun. The good news is that they have a chance to put it right straight way as they travel to Trowbridge in the league this weekend.