Keeper to the rescue as Panthers get a mauling

SHELF PANTHERS MATCH REPORT 27 FEBRUARY 2011
Brighouse 5 Shelf Panthers 0

A Man of the Match goalkeeping performance by Tom Brett kept the score down to a respectable level against one of the league’s top sides.

Brighouse had won six of their seven previous matches this season, averaging eight goals scored for every one conceded. And in the absence of their striking talisman Toby – and with only eleven available players - the Panthers were always likely to struggle.

The home side had the lion’s share of possession in the first half, but Shelf actually managed to go in level at half time, thanks largely to some wayward finishing by Brighouse and some excellent goalkeeping by Tom Brett.

After the break, the Panthers had to toil up the slope and were unable to get out of their own half for almost the entire 35 minutes – although this did give their isolated front-man Tom Mann chance to socialise with Brighouse’s equally under-employed defenders.

Goals in the 37th and 45th minutes put the home side in firm control of the match, and from then on Shelf were fighting a desperate rearguard action. Three further goals followed in the last ten minutes as the visitors ran out of steam.

The damage could have been much worse if it hadn’t been for a string of fine second-half stops by Tom Brett and yet another trademark header off the line by Jonny (or “Tom Wood,” as he’s known in media circles).

And Adam Renard’s typically all-action display added to the growing theory that he’s actually one of identical triplets. How else can he manage to be in three different areas of the pitch at the same time?