Saturday’s game against Parklife saw a guest return for former Milanda goalkeeper Steve Walker who replaced the suspended Chris Preston in goal and by the end of this game he had made a major contribution in helping Milanda hold onto a point.
As has become almost a Milanda tradition they took the lead in the first few minutes. An interception by Reid down the left was followed by a cross into the box for Coyle who despite a less than clean strike still managed to get the ball over the line and put Milanda ahead. This should have been the start of Milanda dominance but they couldn’t get going and the game became a frantic kick and rush from both sides. Milanda were guilty of waiting for the ball on more than one occasion and were lucky to get to half time still one goal ahead.
Second half was as dull as the first until Milanda got a second. Parklife made a complete mess of a short corner and Addison was first to react but was brought down before he could set up a Milanda counter attack. From the free kick Milanda went route one. Fawns launched the ball up to the edge of the Parklife box where Williamson headed it on and before the Parklife keeper could react Scott nipped into touch it past him for his first goal of the season. That should have been it for Milanda but slack defending in a two minute period allowed Parklife back in.
Their first goal was a result of Milanda once again failing to clear their lines. A period of pinball in the box was finally finished off with a Parklife forward looping a header over Walker and landing in the net despite Wilson trying to reach the ball. Two mins later and the game was all square. A cross from the right was met by an unchallenged Parklife forward and his header gave Walker no chance. Suddenly from having the game won Milanda were staring at the possibility of losing all three pts. The game did open up a bit at this point as each team tried to find the winner. Milanda had a good penalty claim turned down when Reid looked to be held when trying to reach a Williamson cross. At the other end Walker was almost single handedly keeping Milanda in it with save after save. Neither team could make the breakthrough though and the points were shared.
A draw could probably be considered a fair result over the piece but Milanda will kick themselves for letting a two goal lead slip particularly as they lost 2 very soft goals but Parklife had a number of other chances that could have seen them win the game.
Website man of the match – A day when a lot of effort was put in but never quite got going and playing as well as we can. For the second week running a goalkeeper takes the man of the match award. Some of Steve Walker’s saves were top class and kept Milanda in the game.