Men's 1st Team Vs Statford 2nds

YARDLEY     4          STRATFORD 2nds    1

Scorers: Munib Altaf, Noor Zaman  3

Yardley 1sts maintained their unbeaten start to the season with, in the end, a comfortable win albeit against Stratford 2nds ( West Midlands Premier ). A lively start saw the visitors trying to assert some authority but it was the home side who, settling into their stride, pressed forward in numbers and with some pace especially from Junaid along the right wing and began to cause problems for the Stratford defence, in spite of an apparent reluctance to shoot once in the D. However, an excellent flowing attack, with skipper Zach at the heart of it, found  Munib in space on the left of the D and he made no mistake with his shot. Yardley were generally playing a well disciplined game and the defence, well marshalled by Rob and Matt, was coping with anything the visitors could throw at them. A shot from Noor was cleared off the line just before he had another chance presented to him courtesy of a deflection from a defender’s stick to give him a simple ‘tap-in’.  Yardley continued to press forward at every opportunity and it was no surprise that a third goal was scored before half time, again by Noor after his persistence paid off. Gavin almost made it four before the break and to Stratford’s credit they forced Neal into a great save. Yardley were well worth their three goal lead at half-time but it could and should have a more emphatic margin if only a few more of the many chances made had been converted.

During the early second half Yardley continued to press forward and Munib cleverly set up Noor but his shot went just wide. Stratford gradually came more into the game as Yardley seemed to go ‘off the boil’ a little and they did eventually score a well taken goal to reduce the arrears.  Yardley seemed to snap out of their sloppy period when Noor completed his hat-trick after more good play from Munib. A lively ending to the game saw Junaid just wide with a great effort and then Stratford were denied a second right on the stroke of full time after a shot into the goal from a short corner  was deemed to be too high.

Although a comfortable win in  the end in the final ‘friendly’ before the rigours of the league campaign begin next week, Yardley will want to ensure they stay ‘on task’ for the full seventy minutes. The first league match at away at Newtown.