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Ryan Owens reports on his side's 3-3 home draw against Woodbridge Town on Saturday 8 September 2007
The squad was bolstered by the inclusion of Steve Arnold, Tony French, Andy Gooderham and Liam Cawtheray for a game against Woodbridge Reserves in Group 4 of the Reserves Cup competition.
The game saw Melford start strongly against a youthful, spirited Woodbridge side. Chances were created for both Ryan Owens and Tony French that maybe on another day would and should have been taken to ease Melford into an early deserved lead.
However, as sometimes happens in these games, against the run of play Woodbridge took the lead when a cross into the box was touched home by the Woodbridge front man that apparently glanced in off Andy Gooderham but apparently he denied it was an own goal after the game!
The goal effected the confidence of the team, that also co-incided with Goody having to be replaced due to an injury which resulted in the team changing it's formation to 3-5-2 to try and give us more bodies in the middle of the park.
The lead was short lived as parity was restored when a good move down the left flank involving Cook and then Owens found ROSS SWAIN on the other flank to rifle a 20 yard bullet into the top corner of the net off the underside of the bar. I'm not sure who was more amazed, their goalkeeper with the power of the shot or Ross when it flew in!!
The goal gave us a bit more confidence and like busses the second goal was not far away, a neat one 2 on the edge of the area between Owens and French found OWENS in space to hit a dipping half volley over the goalkeeper into the top corner of the net to give Melford a 2-1 lead going in at the break.
The side were confident that even though we hadn't played our best we were winning th game and that there where more goals out there. To give Woodbridge their dues, they started the second half well and were asking questions from our resolute defense, marshaled well by the Arnold brothers and Robson in goal the lead was maintained.
Melford took what looked to be the 3rd and match winning goal when a free kick by Jack Talyor crept under the jumping Woodbridge wall to the feet of Owens who forced the keeper into a quick sharp save but the rebound falling to FRENCH to poke home from close range.
Being 3-1 up Melford should have killed off the game but an errant clearance into the middle of the park fell to the opposing team who split the Melford defense before the incoming forward lifting the ball over the advancing Robson to give Woodbridge the chance of rescuing a point.
The equalizer came when an offside decision was blatantly ignored by the referee which allowed the Woodbridge striker to finish with aplomb into the far corner of the net to secure Woodbridge a share of the spoils.
As you can imagine, there was heavy protestations from all the Melford players, but the referee who we had the game previous against Clacton was not a Melford fan and yet again it felt we were on the end of all wrong decisions during the afternoon.
Owens had a chance to snatch victory in the last minute when put through on goal by French but this time his finishing was off as he blasted wide when it was probably easier to score!
All in all, we can take the positives that we created chances and scored 3 goals, however we must learn that to secure the points we have to be clinical and finish sides off when we have the opportunities, otherwise we're always open to a dodgy decision which will cost us points.
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