by Jeff King
Wearside League Division 3 - Saturday 27th August 2022
Wear United 0 v 8 Chester-le-Street Reserves
Two games in and it’s all systems go for Anthony Johnson’s young charges in the Wearside League Division Three. Two wins, 23 goals and two clean sheets. As perfect a start as you could imagine.
Johnson knows things will get tougher but could hardly have dreamed of a better lift-off to the campaign. They’ve certainly made everyone aware of their presence.
United took the lead on 7 minutes and what a magnificent effort it was. Captain
Aaron Davison rolled a free-kick to the right and Joe Sykes stormed on to the ball and crashed a superb 30-yard effort into the top left-hand corner of the net to give United a flying start.
On 26 minutes a bizarre incident gave Chester the chance to double their lead. The Wear United centre half reaches into the air and punches the ball away with his hand to prevent Jude Anderson from tapping into an empty net. Ref gives the penalty and Wear are down to ten men.
Up steps Callum McGilvray with the spot-kick and he dispatches it into the bottom corner past the diving keeper’s right hand and it’s 2 – 0 United. Wear were already struggling against Chester and being down to ten men wasn’t going to help their cause.
It didn’t take long for Chester to make their numerical advantage count. On 43 minutes it was 3 – 0. A good passage of play saw Sykes finding space down the right, playing the ball into Jay Giles who’s first time drilled cross is fired into the bottom right by Noah Ellis.
Three-nil at the break it didn’t take Chester long to resume where they’d left off as they struck immediately the second half got underway. Great build up play on the edge of the box with Davidson playing a lovely reverse pass over the Wear defence into Anderson who rifles into the top right corner for United’s fourth.
On 55 minutes Chester went nap. McGilvray netting his second with a neat calm finish from 10 yards out.
Eight minutes later and it was 6 – 0 with Ben Carter getting in on the action. More good work on the edge of the Wear box saw McGilvray finding an overlapping Jamie Gibson on the on the left who plays it across to Carter for a simple tap in.
McGilvray completed his hat-trick on 66 minutes to put Chester 7 – 0 in front as they ran Wear ragged and cashed in. McGilvray advanced from midfield and as the wear defenders backed off it gave him the chance to crack home a 20 yard shot into the bottom right corner.
Chester did, understandably, take their foot of the gas a little and were in cruise control knocking the ball around neatly and retaining possession well. With four minutes of the ninety to go they did go further ahead.
Jay Giles produced some tricky footwork and control inside the Wear box and won himself a penalty after he was tripped. He stepped up himself and converted into the bottom corner to make it a final score of 8 – 0 to Chester.
This was another very dominant performance from Chester-le-Street United Reserves. There were actually a few regulars missing for one reason or another. But some of the young lads in the Chester pool of players grasped the opportunity to show how well the squad is stocked and staking their claims for more game time.
TEAM : 1. James Hughes 2. Joe Sykes 3. Jamie Gibson 4. Liam College 5. Luke Curry 6. Aaron Davidson (c ) 7. Jay Giles 8. Callum McGilvray 9. Noah Ellis 10. Jude Anderson 11. Ben Carter
SCORERS : Sykes, McGilvray 3, Ellis, Anderson, Carter, Giles
PLAYER OF THE MATCH : Callum McGilvray