Olton 3rds v Old Wulfrunians Saturday 5th Dec 2009 MRHA: 3rd Team League: West Midlands 1 13 - 0 Home

e Win Tassos x 4, Stapely x 3, Edwin Waters x 2, Aidan Blanco x 2, Paul Smith x 1, and Tim Watkins x 1
An unprepared and weak 11 man West Bromwich team arrived late at Castle Olton to take on the gladiatorial 3rd team. After a weeks rest and two consistently good team performances in the previous encounters, Olton had every confidence going into this game. Well prepared and benefitting from the pre-match warm up Olton came out of the blocks firing and almost immediately nearly found the back of the net within 30 seconds of the start. West Brom were certainly on the back foot like rabbits caught in the headlights with Olton pressing for the first goal. Soon it came with two others in quick succession taking Olton to an early 3 0. New boy Paul Smith entered the fray midway through the first half and showed confidence and maturity in the midfield and was very impressive on his debut, managing to get on the score sheet too. Olton continued to cut West Brom apart with a system of short passing and support for the ball carrier to great effect. As predicted after the last game report, Stapes did not let me down and bagged another hatrick in impressive style. He achieved that feat at the top of the diamond and is developing into a core team member and invaluable in Olton 3rd XIs drive for promotion. With a squad of 15, Olton were able to stay fresh and coupled with the passing game soon started creating more chances stretching the West Brom defence. Inevitably, the combination of Oltons game play, fitness, organisation and subs support West Brom were staring down the barrel of the gun. By half time the game was beyond conclusion, it was just a case of Olton staying focussed and continuing to play a disciplined team game. And so the 2nd half continued much like the first, although a bit wetter with rain moving in, and the goals just kept coming with most of the forwards and midfield getting in on the act. Edwin Waters was impressive again and is growing in confidence and stature with every game. His only folly was to miss a sitter in the last minute of the game having dribbled passed the West Brom defence and goal keeper from the 25 yd line, which would have rewarded him with a hatrick and the team aggregate of 14 goals. Even taking into consideration the weakness of West Brom, they did have some useful and tricky young forwards but John Whiting and the rest of the Oltons strong defence and defensive midfield of Obrien, Joker, Munoz, Heslop and the ever young Tim Jones were a match for them. Oltons strong defence giving added confidence to the rest of the team and the foundation for some of the success so far this season. It was Tim Robins turn to be shy in front of goal, a temporary glitch that he is sure to amend in the next game. However, another satisfying performance, 6 pts clear at the top of the table and unbeaten with a + 53 goal difference cant be bad.

- Piers.