Hounslow Wolves v Heathrow Club

16th January

Hounslow Wolves 4-2 Heathrow Club

Starting XI: Mario, Marcus, Mo, Sergio, Ali, Tamim, Liam, Harms, Sanjit (C), Bilal, Ish

Subs : Rudy, Abdali, Adam P

With more than 6 weeks without a fixture due to several circumstances including Christmas, Covid and weather conditions, the Wolves returned for their first fixture of 2022 and looked to hit the ground running and picking up where they left. The Wolves faced Heathrow club, whom are the only side to beat the Wolves this season. The squad saw call ups for Marcus and Harms both respectively making their debuts for the first team.

The Wolves travelled to Coney Green on a cold foggy morning with temperatures barely reaching anything above 2oc, with a near to frozen, but very muddy pitch, these Wolves knew the conditions were nothing next to ideal. With warm-ups and prematch nerves/excitement underway led by the one and only Jat, the Wolves knew 3 points today would leave them sitting pretty at the top of the log with 3 games in hand. With kick off arriving the gaffer Rishi headed the team talk and expressed his views on what he thought would be the toughest game of the season yet and with no ideal match practice he knew that the rust would have to be shaken off for the first 20 before we could start playing our football.  Rishi opted for nothing other than a 4-3-3. Gaffer mentioned that the first game battle was won and lost in the midfield, so put a massive emphasise on winning that battle.

With kick off underway and the ultra’s flooding in, both teams started off very scrappy, with multiple late challenges and a few odd touches. Not the best display for the fans. But the Wolves managed to take some time and grow into the game and attempting to break down the defence of Heathrow club. With the 10th minute approaching, Heathrow committed a foul just outside of the centre circle, and Ish stepped up and was encouraged by all to shoot due to the lack of wall. Which he did and took a horrid deflection by a Heathrow head and ended up wrong footing the keeper and ended up in the back of the net. 1-0. The dubious goal panel gave it an OG, but it was clearly on target, so this was overturned. The first half could’ve been summed up in one word, scrappy. With the half time whistle approaching Heathrow grew into the game, and conjured up some decent chances, but these were matched by Mario who gobbled these up making no mistake.

At the half time team talk, the gaffer predicated a bit of rust, which was shown but was elated with a 1-0 lead and not even reaching our best, a few knocks in the first half saw Ali made way for Rudy, who slotted in at RB and the rest of the team remained unchanged. The Wolves knew the next goal would be vital and needed to massively improve from an under par first half.

With the second half under, an inventive kick off saw Liam play Bilal in behind and break away from their defence leaving him 1 on 1 but was matched by the keeper and defected for a corner. The opening segment saw the Wolves have the lion share of the possession but didn’t amount to anything in the final third as the lads were guilty of overplaying and not playing the simple ball when needed. Wolves knew they had to punish and take a 2-goal lead to be able to give themselves some breathing space, but to the contrary the Wolves conceded a soft freekick near the centre circle, which was floated in and won by a Heathrow head who found his teammate open at the back post and slotted into an empty net. 1-1.

The next goal was vital. The Heathrow goal was clearly against the run of play, but for the next 15/20 minutes the Wolves were guilty of rushing and forcing the issue to regain their lead, which ultimately meant squandered opportunities and it felt like it could be one of those days. But with a quarter of the game remaining, the gaffer made a few changes in personal Ish off replaced by Abdali and this shifted Liam left with the 3 in midfield. The wolves won the ball on the edge of there own box, which Harms released to Liam and in turn flicked to Sanjit who played in Bilal first time to release him 1 on 1…..we know how that poem ends. 2-1 Wolves. But once again a one goal lead was not enough. The wolves showed some ruthlessness and with what can only be described as a clearance assist my Mo, played in Bilal again to make it 3-1. A bit of breathing space for the Wolves, but this game was far from over, with yet another free kick conceded on the edge of the box, Heathrow reacted first and second, and with a neat finish the Heathrow skipper put it in the back of the net. 3-2 with less than 10 to go. But one thing you can never do is break the work rate of the Wolves, with the lads once again winning the ball in their own half, Harms played through Sanj who squared the ball to Bilal making it 4-2 and Bilal completing his hat-trick. A great second half performance from the Wolves and yet another 3 points in the bag.

Big shout out to all the lads on never giving up. The Wolves head into there next fixture against AFC Heathrow, sitting pretty at the top with 3 games in hand!

MOTM: Bilal