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Wellington Select 1 v 3 Rose & Thistle (Division 2)
After the disappointment of another cup exit in their last game, Thistle kept up their excellent recent league form emerging 3-1 winners at top of the table Wellington Select, the performance capped by another brace from Dan Allery.
The perennially late Allery kept up his superb goal scoring record by netting either side of half time in a hard fought victory that sees Thistle rise to 3rd in the table and re-ignite their promotion aspirations.
With John Davison unavailable, it was left to Toni Connetta to take managerial control of Thistle on a sun-coated January morning. A near full attendance left Connetta with the difficult decision of having to whittle the squad down to the sixteen players he could name.
In the now familiar yellow shirts and adopting the 4-5-1 formation that has served them well in recent months, Thistle were slow out of the blocks. Wellington’s physical presence and good organisation made it difficult for Thistle to get hold of the ball, with most of the early exchanges in Thistle’s half. Despite Thistle settling as the half progressed, somewhat inevitably it was Wellington who took the lead. The Wellington right winger was able to cut inside and, perhaps given too much time to shoot, fired the ball across the Connetta’s goal. Connetta was able to get down quickly but the difficult pitch conditions allowed the ball to squeeze out of his grasp and despite a mini goal-mouth scramble, the ball fell to Wellington who had the easiest of finishes to put them one up.
Serving as a wake up call, Thistle started to find their rhythm and the midfield three of Harris, Holman and Waygood began to exert their influence on the game forcing Wellington into by-passing the midfield in favour of long balls over the top which the pace and reading of Leach and Marsden were able to deal with without many difficulties.
Thistle began to carve out chances of their own, with Gadsten launching teasing crosses from both open play and set pieces in an attempt to put the part time Wellington goalkeeper under pressure.
Thistle gradually began to create more clear cut chances and a break down the right freed Allery who stretched past his marker and rolled the ball across the goal just out of the reach of Lindley. A minute later, Allery ran onto a ball over the top and with the keeper stranded in no-mans land, a clever lob sailed only a foot over the bar. But Thistle wouldn’t have to wait long. From the immediate goal kick, Marshall won a commanding header to once again send Allery through who this time made no mistake and stroked the ball past the floundering keeper to make it 1-1. As half time arrived it was Thistle on the ascendancy.
A solid game from Walker was ended at half time with the experienced Scot unable to continue in the second half, leading to the introduction of D’Souza for his Thistle debut. After taking a while to adjust to the riggers of Sunday league, D’Souza found his game and made some important interventions to preserve Thistle’s lead.
The next goal became the turning point and it was Thistle who were able to take full control of the game with the goal again falling to Dan Allery. Allery, after missing the last game through injury, picked up the ball inside the Wellington half and after darting past a couple of defenders, unleashed a venomous shot high into the right hand corner. A bit of magic from Thistle’s top goalscorer.
Hard working Thistle kept Wellington at bay for most of the second half, although Connetta was called into rushing out and smothering the ball when Wellington were sent clear. Thistle’s third goal arrived midway during the half with Marshall again on the assists register. His long throw was met by the clever run of Waygood who, in his typical style, flicked the ball into the far side of the goal.
Lindley should have made it four late on after shooting wide following confusion in the Wellington defence but the cushion of the third goal proved enough to topple the league leaders and earn a well deserved win. Victory extends Thistle’s winning streak in the league to four games and puts them right back in the hunt for a promotion place.
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