Beechfield United Football Club

POSTED: August 14 2017 10:38:01 By Keith Long - Winning Start to 2017/2018 Season For First Team

Thanks to a superb all-round performance Beechfield United 1st Team made a winning start to the 2017/2018 season in the Manchester Football League. In Division 1 Beechy were away to Pennington FC and producing some brilliant football throughout the contest thoroughly deserved their 2-0 win. United were on the attack straight from the kick-off and opened the scoring after just 52 seconds when Man of the Match Craig Massey chased Jamie Sinnott's lofted pass over the defence and dinked the ball past the keeper. United's stand-in keeper Luke Johnston showed a safe pair of hands gathering the ball confidently when Pennington counter-attacked looking for a quick equaliser. But Beechy doubled their lead in the 5th minute after a Pennington defender misplaced an attempted headed clearance and Jordan Jones-Waite punished the error firing the ball low into the corner of the net.

Pennington's No9 had a half chance to reduce the arrears but he side footed the ball over the crossbar. Varying their tactics United adopted the long ball method at times that caused all sorts of problems for the Pennington back four. A perfectly weighted long ball from Andrzej Browne was controlled by Jordan Jones-Waite who was denied a second goal when the keeper made an acrobatic one-handed save. Numerous free kick's were awarded to the home team by a generous match official but United with both Tim Taylor and Rob Lockley in superb form defended resolutely and remained two goals up at the break. At the start of the second half Pennington briefly launched a few counter attacks but Beechy continued to enjoy a greater share of the ball. A slick move between Carl Ravenscroft and Jamie Sinnott carved out a chance for Jordan Jones-Waite then in the 55th minute the Pennington keeper was in action again making another fine save to keep out an effort from Craig Massey.

Steven Erskine and Chris Ferris were outstanding in midfield hardly wasting possession as United created more top-class soccer. An injury forced Tim Taylor to retire that meant Beechy had to make a couple of tactical changes that saw Steven Naylor taking over as keeper and Luke Johnston playing as a central defender. Once again the Pennington keeper denied United the opportunity to increase their lead when he produced a two handed save following Jamie Sinnott's powerfully struck free kick. Within a five minute spell Beechy made two more substitutions that resulted in Louis Duff and Tom Allcock replacing Jordan Jones-Waite and Craig Massey. During a late attacking burst by the home side Steven Naylor made one fantastic save after a long range effort from Pennington's No9. But United kept control of the match and with more chances on offer should have added more goals in the latter stages.