With Broome & co missing in central midfield Whaley yesterday fielded 4 centre forwards and, given Whaley’s recent run of form, everyone expected plenty of goals however through poor decision making in the area & great goal keeping the score line doesn’t reflect how many opportunities Whaley had today. Whaley’s Tom Scorer latched onto a rare through ball and was pulled down from behind in the box, up stepped Sutton to fire home another penalty to give Whaley a deserved lead. Lee Morris then had a close range shot at the back post saved by Shallcross.

Scorer took a vicious knock from a poor challenge, not seen by the referee, the resulting swollen calf meant that Tom moved wide & Lee Morris, who looked lively, went up top with Ray. The pair linked well immediately playing a one two releasing Dwolitka who guided the ball into the net to make it 2 nil. Whaley then pressed and for twenty minutes and dominated the game but for all the build up play their decision making in the box was awful as Whaley should have & could have easily been 4 or 5 up. Rudheath’s new look young versatile team never let their heads drop and with Didsbury having plenty of freedom in midfield & Hughes pressing were always a threat throughout the game.

The second half was very similar to the first and, Whaley couldn’t finish the game off with several chances spurned in front of goal, Morris shot just wide from close range, Dwolitka had a one on one saved by Shallcross, Burgess clean through decided to shoot early and curved his shot over the bar.

Then a misunderstanding in Whaley’s defence invited Hughes in on goal but his heavy touch gave Tattersall the opportunity to smoother the ball; another Whaley mix up & Hughes again found himself in front of goal but his shot from 15 yards produced the save of the season with a strong hand pushing the ball wide diving to his right. The signs were there, if Whaley didn’t put this game to bed it could come back and haunt them. 

Dwolitka had a good battle with Rudheaths Cameron Bradley but in one accidental challenge ended up with concussion and was replaced after 65mins by debut boy Jack Kelly. Jack looked lively and created a couple of good opportunities but not quite good enough to beat in form Shallcross. Late in the end of game Lee Morris drifted in from the left to beat three defenders but from the edge of the six yard box, in front of goal with only the keeper to beat, blasted the ball against the underside of the bar. The ball bounced out and Rudheath broke through the middle and the hard working Hughes dispatched a hard low shot past Tattersall to make it 1-2.

Whaley had a nervy ten minutes to see the game out, but apart from a Bradley header from a corner which went well over the score didn’t change. Midfielder Tom Streets playing out of position as sweeper was Whaley’s man of the match and continued his great start to the season. Whaley are still on the lookout for a centre half or right back which will help balance the side and release players to play in their normal positions.

A frustrated crowd didn’t see Whaley at their best today with too many individual errors resulting in a patchy game in which the pattern of play never really developed. Having said that Rudheath only had a couple of chances whereas Whaley had a dozen.

Team J TATTERSALL B SUTTON (1)R NEWTON (c)T STREETS J WOOD L MORRIS W BAILEY J GREGORY BURGESS R DWOLITKA (1) (65)T SCORER

SUBS A BARLOW J KELL (65) M BALDWIN