REDS FIGHT BACK IN THE RAIN

 Pre- Season Friendly

BLIDWORTH WELFARE RED FC 3 AWSWORTH VILLA RESERVES 2

Well where do I begin with the history of Blidworth Welfare Red FC, they began life under the Blidworth Welfare banner as junior players and then became the under 18's team, but the team was to be split up in to Blidworth Welfare first team and reserves and the players decided against that, so they moved to their Unwin Road ground in Sutton In Ashfield but kept the name Blidworth Welfare Red with no connection with the welfare club. Meanwhile Awsworth Villa Reserves are a new set up with lots of young players aged around 20 and under.

Just before kick off, the Reds Chairman John Waterhouse handed me a Bottle of water and also a snickers bar.

The game began with dark skies and Villa looked quick and used the left hand side well forcing the home keeper in to a couple of very good saves. The rain then began to chuck it down and the pitch became a bit greasy, with a few players slipping over. After 23 minutes, a ball to the right wing, saw the player cross the ball low and a Villa player nipped in and tucked it past the keeper to give his side the lead. Two minutes later, the score could have been doubled when a shot from 25 yard smashed the Reds crossbar before being cleared to safety.

Reds who had been playing with one player forward changed formation throwing two up front and this paid off straight away in the 31st minute, when a Awsworth player slipped and the Reds player advanced and equalised.

At Half Time I crossed over the pitch to the near side to the changing rooms and stood with Awsworth Chairman Bucko and their President Willie. The Second Half kicked off and within seconds Reds had turned it round to make it 2-1, but straight from kick off, Villa equalised to make it 2-2 as the rain hammered. Chances then ebbed and flowed from end to end and it was the Reds that claimed the victory in the 68th minute when netting to make it 3-2.

A really good entertaining match even though I got soaked, two very good clubs that are run the right way and full of good footballing people in the non league game.

To see the 32 photos taken at the match, please click on this LINK