Yorkshire Amateur League Division 1 – Saturday 7th April 2018
Full-time: Dewsbury Rangers FC 1 – 3 Idle FC
Goals: A. Irving, A. Medley, L. Cookson
MOTM: C. Halligan
The games are arriving thick and fast for Idle now we’ve entered the business end of the season and Saturday saw the blues travel to Dewsbury Rangers for another tough game in the run-in.
Despite the recent bouts of bad weather, the pitch at Dewsbury was actually in a decent condition despite a few bobbles here and there but the main talking point before the game was the absence of centre midfielder, Tom Simonett who had abandoned the lads to go out on the sesh. Conor Halligan filled in for Simonett alongside Carl Dawson and Jack Strudwick to add some defensive steel and box-to-box running in midfield.
It’s safe to say Simonett had it rough in the Idle group chat. Marcus Strudwick had gone fishing and caught a whopper! Something of a defining theme for the match to be fair…
The start to the game was delayed by around 5 minutes with the Dewsbury lads going into the changing rooms after their warm-up and then taking another 5 minutes when back out on the pitch to finish their team-talk. Was it mind games to keep the Idle lads waiting? Who knows, but with Idle being the masters in the art of shithousery, there was only to one winner in that contest…
Truth be told, Idle dominated the game for large parts with Dewsbury not causing many issues in the Idle defence other than one of two balls over the top. The away side kept possession well and with Dewsbury playing a very high defensive line, Idle looked to play the ball over the top and release Ryan Mitchell, Adam Medley and Aaron Irving in behind.
The strategy seemed to work with Medley hitting the bar and another couple of chances going begging for Irving and Mitchell. However, Idle eventually got the breakthrough they deserved from a Medley corner. Irving was waiting to pounce at the back post and his bullet header found the roof of the net. 0-1 and Idle were certainly proving the better side.
Meanwhile, Halligan was having a great game in the centre of the park, sweeping up in front of the defence, winning headers against Dewsbury’s 6’7” midfielder and getting forward when possible. Defensively Idle were looking solid too, stopping most of the Dewsbury attacks before the 18-yard-box. Wind-up merchant M. Strudwick was in full flow early doors as well with the Dewsbury number 9 in particular enjoying a bite.
And as the half-time whistle went the Dewsbury number 9 again went off on one with M. Strudwick in the Idle goal, so much so that the referee had to get involved with the teams going their separate ways for the interval.
The second half started much the same as the first with Idle dominating the ball and creating the early chances to extend their lead. However, Dewsbury had a game plan and it was the home team who managed to strike first in the second half. It was a simple long ball over the top and with Luke Chandler and Lee Cookson scrambling back the ball managed to elude both centre-back’s and land perfectly in between them and M. Strudwick. The striker managed to head the ball on the bounce over Strudwick to level the scores. And shock it turned out to be the number 9 who’s head had fallen off in the first half, it’s safe to say he had a few words to say after scoring.
However, Idle remained calm and continued to play their football knowing that more chances would present themselves. Low and behold, Idle were back in the lead, again from another set-piece. Another corner landed at the near post, it was a Chandler flick on that landed at the feet of Cookson who managed to turn the ball goalwards. There’s some debate as to who’s goal it was with some awful Dewsbury defending on the goal-line that saw the ball go in but we shall say it was Cookson’s goal just to keep the lad happy eh? We don’t want to ruin his weekend after all…
Idle continued to apply the pressure with Dewsbury throwing more and more men forward to try and get back in the game. However, Idle managed to get their third which effectively put the game to bed.
Medley was having a field day down the left-wing, turning the full-back inside out on a number of occasions and it was the winger who got his reward. A throw-in on the left hand side saw Jamie Allen (who managed to nutmeg the right winger two times in one match, unheard of and embarrassing for the winger if you ask me…) deliver the ball to the feet of Irving whose strong hold up play allowed him to slip the ball into Medley who had in turn, ghosted in behind the defence. Medley took one touch and smashed the ball in off the post from close range.
Idle played out the game comfortably even with Dewsbury’s late flourish of corners and an absolutely ludicrous penalty claim. The referee blew the full-time whistle with Idle running out 1-3 victors! Another important 3 points as we move into Monday’s away game versus Alwoodley Reserves.
All Idle aren’t we?!
By Jamie Allen
The Playmaker 
Posted on April 9, 2018
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