Consolation Shield: We Hate Ben 5-1 AFC Gwatch

We Hate Ben finally put an end to their poor run with a dominating display against AFC Gwatch in which they ran out 5-1 winners. WHB fielded an experimental side as they looked to setup a semi-final tie against Bayer Diamonds or Inter Yournan and although being pegged back once they managed to add a couple of goals in the last half hour to firmly put the tie beyond doubt.

WHB recalled Nathan Leach into goal after an injury while player-manager Matt L'argent moved to central defence to cover for suspended captain Chris Webster. Jack Kelly dropped into left-back while a five-man midfield consisted of Matt Davies, James Amos, Andrew Rhodes, Louis Robertson and Ryan Muir. Adam Grosvenor made his first start up front.

The 4-5-1 side took the lead early on when Muir received the ball in midfield, found himself some space and curled a shot into the top corner from outside the box- very similar to his effort in the last round against FC Beaver. Shortly after scoring WHB conceded, again with a long ball that wasn't cleared. The pass found its way to a Gwatch striker on the edge of the box, who pushed forwards before driving his shot low beyond Leach for the equaliser. With WHB making a couple of changes and a switch to 4-4-2 as some of the benched players came on, the two sides fought a battle in the midfield. WHB tried to get behind the Gwatch defence but they were not taking chances and cleared into touch with every given oppourtunity. With the half-time whistle looming, up stepped Matt L'argent with a touch of skill as he beat a couple of men a smashed a unstoppable shot past the goalkeeper to put his team 2-1 up.

The second half started brightly and continued in the same manner as WHB built attack after attack only to fail with the final ball or have the a pass intercepted and hammered into touch by Gwatch. With more substitutions made WHB continued to press and finally scored to get the cushion they were looking for. A bouncing ball in the midfield found its way to Davies who hit a well taken half-volley through a crowd of players before it found itself in the bottom corner. WHB found a fourth when Rhys Jones was fouled in the box and L'argent slotted home for his second of the game. A fifth goal was scored towards the end after Jay Walker accelerated in between two defenders and struck low across the goalkeeper from the left for his sixth of the season.

L'argent made these post-match comments: "We've been threatening that kind of result for a while now so it was nice to score a few goals. The We Hate Ben way seems to be that we put in the effort and a good performance but we just never get the result to match. I'm very pleased with everyone who was involved as I couldn't fault anyones performance. Hopefully we can build on this and start a good run of form and get a few wins in the league."

Team (4-5-1, 4-4-2)

Leach - Dodsworth, L'argent, Norbury (C), Kelly - Muir, Amos, Davies, Rhodes, Robertson - Grosvenor.

Subs:

(Used) R. Jones, Walker, Hanmore-Farrugia, Turvill, Johnson, Healy, D'sa, Fleming (Unused) Talbot.

Goals: Muir, L'argent 2, Walker, Davies.

Man of the match: Kelly