Struggling To Beat Nine Men? Shelley You Can’t Be Serious?

SHELF PANTHERS MATCH REPORT 21 NOVEMBER 2010
Shelley 2 Shelf Panthers 5

The Panthers made heavy weather of beating a dogged Shelley side – despite enjoying a two-man advantage for the entire match.

Shelf could only muster 11 available players, but concerns about their lack of substitutes were soon allayed when the home team turned up with just nine.

Maybe it was complacency. Maybe they froze in the icy blast blowing across the Pennines. Whatever the reason, the Panthers failed to make their numerical advantage count: Shelley peppered their goal with five shots in the first five minutes, while the visitors managed just one.

Then, in the seventh minute, Shelf got a breakthrough against the run of play. Tom Wood’s clearance found Robert in the centre of midfield and he outsprinted the defence before smashing the ball into the top right corner for his second goal of the season.

Both teams were saved by the woodwork in the space of two minutes. First Toby turned in the area and fired a shot against the angle of post and bar, then a clever lob bounced off the Shelf crossbar.

On another day, Robert would have grabbed a hat-trick in a four-minute first-half spell. Instead, his neat volley was side-footed straight at the keeper, his next effort was blasted over from close-range and the third went wide from a similar distance.

Then, a minute before half-time, Toby raced onto Sam’s through-ball, drew the keeper and placed the ball into the top right corner.

Toby’s second, seven minutes after the break, was coolly stroked past the keeper after neat interplay with Adam Renard.

Three goals up against nine-men, the Panthers should have cruised through the rest of the match. Instead, they allowed Shelley to pull two goals back and, with 11 minutes still to play, looked to be floundering.

The next minute, their worries were eased. The ball was played in from the right through a crowd of players. Dylan just failed to glance it home, but Man of the Match Joe was handily placed behind him to bury it from close range.

Toby’s close-range tap-in after 63 minutes gave the Panthers a somewhat flattering three-goal margin of victory and lifted them to eighth place in the league ahead of next week’s clash with leaders Dewsbury West.