Dangerous Dylan deflates Dynamoes

SHELF PANTHERS MATCH REPORT 21 MARCH 2010
Shelf Panthers 8 3D Dynamoes 1

Shelf scored a crushing victory to avenge their only defeat of the season and maintain their position at the top of the league.

The Panthers began cautiously against the side who had ambushed them so successfully in a Pennine swamp in October. But - with Dylan rampaging down the left flank to win his second Man of the Match award of the season against the same opponents – they rapidly grew in confidence and took a tight grip on the match.

The breakthrough came after 15 minutes, when Tom Mann controlled the ball on the right edge of the area and hit a left-foot shot into the bottom left corner.

Three minutes later, Tom Mann’s cross from the left found Robert, who made no mistake from close-range.

But 3Ds weren’t going to give up without a fight. Urged on by their coach, they went on the attack and forced Luke into two fine saves in the space of a minute – the first with his legs and the second an athletic dive to his right.

There was an element of good fortune about Shelf’s third goal two minutes from half-time as Toby inadvertently played a thunderously-struck one-two off an unfortunate defender’s crotch before hammering the ball past the keeper from 25 yards.

Despite playing down the slope, the Panthers made a stuttering start to the second half, and 3Ds were awarded a penalty after 40 minutes when Luke was adjudged to have fouled an attacker. The spot-kick hit the inside of the right-hand post and bounced to safety – but four minutes later the visitors made it 3-1 with a smart breakaway goal.

Any fears of a comeback were soon quelled, though. A minute later, Toby settled the home side’s nerves with a long-range strike for his 42nd goal of the campaign, and the Panthers then piled on the pressure to find the net four more times in the last 20 minutes.

First Robert – who’d got a nasty bang in the face a few minutes earlier – latched onto Jonny’s volleyed through-ball. His first shot was saved by the keeper, but he made no mistake with the rebound. Then Robert’s header was turned into his own net by a defender.

Tom Wood’s goal after 64 minutes was arguably the pick of the bunch – a sweet half-volley high into the net from the edge of the area.

And Sam completed the rout on the stroke of full-time with a hard, low shot through a crowd of players.