FAIRYTALE ENDING FOR SHELF

Vision 1 Shelf Panthers 3

Last week’s hero Cameron Wells was enjoying a well-earned day off at the panto – but Ross Bickerton took centre stage to guide the Panthers to their second successive victory.

Ross often plays something of a Cinderella role for his team, toiling away behind the scenes in midfield, but he stepped into the spotlight today to win the Man of the Match trophy.

Shelf surged into a two-goal lead in the first two minutes. First, Ryan’s long-range shot was headed off the line by a defender, only for Ross to enter stage left and force the ball home from inside the six-yard box for his first league goal of the season. Then Robert burst into the penalty area, shrugged off a challenge and tucked home the second.

Vision’s keeper did well to tip a powerful left-foot shot from Tobias over the bar after 16 minutes, but he could do nothing about the Panthers’ third goal five minutes later as Ross crossed from the left and Robert fired an unstoppable shot.

Shelf almost made it 4-0 before the break as Scott hit a real screamer of a volley just wide from a corner.

Playing into the teeth of a howling gale in the second half, the Panthers found it hard to get the ball to the front men. But with Tom “Babes In The” Wood turning in a solid performance and coach Tony Williams bellowing “He’s behind you” at the first sign of danger, their own goal was rarely threatened.

It meant a quiet afternoon for Cameron’s understudy Jonny Jones, who was converted from centre-back to goalkeeper for the day. He didn’t touch the ball in the first half, pulled off a splendid diving catch after 36 minutes when a gust of wind made the ball dip viciously towards his net, and could do nothing about Vision’s solitary goal five minutes from the end.

It was just as well that he’d conspired to get his goalkeeping shirt caked in several layers of mud during the pre-match warm-up. “I’ll wash this,” declared Shelf’s very own answer to Widow Twankey with a glint in his eye. “This is a job for my new Australian bush flower and kangaroo oil detergent…”