Bath Futsal 6-6 Gloucester Futsal Rev.
Hayesfield School
Friendly
24.08.2014
Bath played Gloucester Futsal Rev in their 2nd Home friendly of Pre Season. The reverse friendly ended 8 – 8 so Bath were confident of getting a good result against them.
The game started very brightly for Bath who had most of the possession with plenty of attempts on goals. The first 10 minutes saw Bath strike the post and force some good saves from the Gloucester Keeper. Unfortunately Bath didn’t get the all important goal and after a few changes found themselves 2 – 0 down. Bath could feel hard done by as were the better side during this period of play.
Bath kept to their tactics and the pressure continued to mount on Gloucester’s defence who were happy to sit back in their own court. A quick bit of thinking from Michael Wootten and a nice left footed shot saw Bath get back into the game to make it 2 – 1. Bath were the team on top for most of the first half with Gloucester’s tactic clearly to catch Bath on the break, this tactic worked for them and they kept their noses in front with Bath being caught on the counter attack several times.
Half Time was 3 – 3 to Gloucester
Bath came out in the Second half with continued confidence as we were not out played in the game at all. Only conceding due to slight errors in the attack which lead to a counter attack. Bath again conceded quickly after the break and went 4 – 3 down. Manager Michael Wootten kept to the same tactics throughout the game as they were working and he was confident of getting in front and the chances kept coming.
Bath managed to pull level immediately from the restart with a run through the middle from Chris Pile and a nice finish. at 4 – 4 Bath were very confident, Gloucester were getting rattled and started to lose their heads. Bath capitalised on this and went 5 – 4 in front and then 6 – 4. With several chances being missed by Bath to put the game to bed Gloucester began to dominate possession and Bath’s defence was tiring it seemed a case of Bath holding on for the final few minutes of the match.
Gloucester kept pressing Bath and with tired legs Bath were out of position and making unforced errors, Gloucester did well to capitalise on this and brought the game back to 6 – 5. With only one minute left on the clock Bath were having a lot thrown at them from Gloucester and eventually with only 47 seconds on the clock Gloucester levelled the game at 6 – 6.
6-6 is how it finished in what was a very hard fought game for both sides. We spoke to Michael Wootten after the game player manager for Bath:
“We fought extremely hard for the game and found ourselves ahead for a large part of it. Unfortunately we couldn’t hold off at the end which may show our lack of experience within the squad. I am extremely proud of our players who showed we have come along way as a team in such a short space of time. I am looking at picking the squad for Sunday’s away game against Salisbury and I want to see us punishing opponents when we get into the final third of the court. We missed a lot of golden chances on Sunday which we will work on in training”
Goal Scorers:
Michael Wootten – 2
Howard Dennis – 1
Chris Pile – 1
Jason Richards – 1
Philippos Philippou – 1
MOM – Michael Wootten, Picked by Deian (Spectator).