Bolton 1st team hosted league leaders Timperley on Saturday. Bolton, who had won 4 consecutive games were in fine from and Timperley the only team in the league not to drop any points this season so far.

The game pushed back and the fans couldn’t believe that club Chair Phil Meachin had been disciplined to the bench due to punctuality issues. This gave Sam Williams a rare start at centre back.

The game started off with both teams trying to take control of the game. Timperley had the better chances during the first 10 minutes of the game but goalkeeper Amu made some good saves. Halfway through the first half, midfield engine Joel gave the ball wide right to Bolton pitbull, Zayn Karim. A lovely pass to Ramagge who did his trade mark spin and pass (known as the Gibraltar waltzer on the streets) into the door, saw Captain Mather with a lovely dink over the keeper. Mather claiming at half time this was his second favourite ever goal scored. Bolton started to dominate the game with the midfield trio of Martin Luke, Joel and Scott bossing the midfield battle and pushing the ball up to the forward line. It was another ball forward to Zayn, who in turn, laid off a lovely pass to Sam Robinson who calmly hit the ball in the back of the net with a sweet strike, 2-0 for Bolton with a few minutes left of the half.

The second half started the complete opposite to how the first half ended. 2 misplaced passes gave Timperley the opportunity to grab a goal with a nice taken penalty corner.

Bolton bounced back and didn’t let their awful start to the half effect them. Captain Mather won the ball just inside the attacking half and with some great work down the left hand side with Karim, he managed to grab his second goal of the game with a deflected shot at chest height. Calmly slotted away. The lead was back to 2 for the home side after a discussion between the 2 umpires.

Timperley however, didn’t give up, and Sam Williams tried to intercept the pass as the last man, their young striker managed to reverse stop the ball and head into the D and won a penalty flick as he was impeded by Amu in net. Timperley scored the penalty stroke and made it 3-2. Bolton continued to play their style and create great chances although Zayn and Damo missed clear open goal sitters.

Bolton did not let this affect them, and it was a rare but great hit by Santa himself, Carl Philbin who nicely struck the ball with a first time hit in the bottom corner to make it 4-2.

Timperley managed to score a 3rd with 10 minutes to go. Bolton then found themselves down to 10 men as Luke misplaced the ball once the umpire had already blown the whistle. To Lukeys defence, he was the oldest player on the pitch so he probably didn’t hear the whistle go!

With only a few minutes to go, Timperley kept attacking and showed why they were top of the league. Their never say die attitude and Boltons lack of discipline enabled them to get back in the game and with Timperley winning their second penalty stroke of the game when a shot hit Sam Williams body as it was going to goal.

Timperley made no mistake and scored their stroke to make it 4-4.

The game finished with a 4-4 draw and both teams probably went home thinking they could have won the game.

Hope you enjoyed the read and if Captain Mather asks me to do another match report, I’m afraid it’ll have to be in Espanol.