Wem Town 0 Trysull 4
West Midlands (Regional) League Division One
At: Butler Sports Centre, Bowens Field, Wem
Kick-off: 3-00 pm
Admission: £2-50 including 16 page programme
Weather: cloudy, dry, blustery wind
Attendance: 50 (headcount)
Duration: first-half: 45:49; second-half: 46:18
With plenty of choice today, I drew up a short list of six possible destinations and opted for a relatively short 78-mile round trip into Shropshire to the Butler Sports Centre, ground of today’s home side Wem Town and also Shawbury United.Suprisingly, this was my first visit to the ground considering it is only 35 or so miles from home and two clubs share the venue.
This West Midlands (Regional) League Division One game pitted Wem, on a run of five league games without a win, against a Trysull side unbeaten in their last two games. And I suppose the game went true to recent form as the visitors won 4-0 even though Wem hit the bar three times.
The ground was located to the north of the town centre at the end of Bowens Field and from the car park the ground entrance was round to the right past the ‘Wem Sports Club’ gate. Programmes was available with admission from the paybox and the pitch ran widthways with the stand being to the left and containing around 114 blue seats in three blocks. Dugouts straddled the halfway line on the opposite touchline.
A plaque at the back of the stand above the players entrance remembers Les Butler, a founder member and devoted chairman 1968–1977. One of two other plaques commemorates that ‘The Centre was officially opened on behalf of Wem Sports and Social Organisation by Mr Billy Wright C.B.E. June 14th 1975. The third plaque remembers a former President.After a decent start, 13th-placed Wem (6 points from 8 games) have found points hard to come by in recent weeks while Trysull (13 points from 9 games) occupied 7th spot in the 16-team division.
A one minute silence was observed in memory of Terry Davies. Teams changed ends and Wem (white shirts, red shorts and socks) got the game underway attacking what I described as the Town Centre, or right to left in relation to my seat in the stand.
Trysull (yellow shirts with blue sleeves, blue shorts and socks) wasted no time in taking the lead in the 4th minute. A long ball forward landed perfectly for Josh Wright on the edge of the area who lifted it over the advancing Wem keeper Ryan Ford into an unguarded net. The visitors continued to dominate possession and Ford produced a fine save to keep out Jon Patrick’s 20-yard left-foot drive. Ford also needed to be alert to keep out another long-range effort from Anthony Blakeway.
A 25-yard drive from Steve Pritchard which flashed past the left-hand post was Wem’s best attempt on goal during the first half. However, Trysull doubled their lead in the 39th minute. From a left-wing corner, Daniel Patrick’s header was turned onto the bar but the same player fired home from the rebound.
“Get one back before half-time,” was the shout to the Wem players and Adam Jones almost responded by heading narrowly wide at the far post.Trysull continued to create chances in the second half and netted a third goal just after the hour mark. Wright flicked home a low left-wing cross at the near post for his second goal of the game.
With all three substitutions made, Wem caused problems during the last 20 minutes. James Astley saw two efforts hit the bar while Jones sent a cross-cum-shot against the bar as well.
The afternoon’s scoring was completed in the 90th minute with Richard Watts’ glancing header and three points lifted Trysull up to fifth position, some nine points behind still 100% leaders Wellington Amateurs.
Goals
0-1 Josh Wright (4)
0-2 Daniel Patrick (39)
0-3 Josh Wright (63)
0-4 Richard Watts (90)
