Diggle 4 - 1 Shepley

Team: 1. Gaz McWatt; 2. Pete Jones; 3. Martin Mayall; 4. Bevan Mayall; 5. Ryan Hewitt; 6. Danny Cheetham; 7. Jake Jacobs; 8. Chris Moore; 9. Jeff Whittaker; 10. Mark Jackson; 11. Wayne Broadbent; 12. Lee Clarke; 13. Keith Martin; 14. Lee Rainford

"We only sing when we're winning; sing when we're winning; we only sing when we're winning."

Match Report: Given that we didn't do a match report on our 2-0 defeat away to Shepley in our last game, then I guess that the 'sing when we're winning' comment must be true.  Fair enough, but we did have a lot to sing about in this one sided victory over the devilishly difficult to beat Shepley.

If we think back to our last game - if we must - it was away v Shepley, in a 'top of the table league encounter' as they say in all the best match reports.  However, not only did we lose but it was a dreadful advert for Diggle FC and a dreadful advert for the top division of the Huddersfield League.  Both sides tried to bore each other into submission, and, in truth, it was an awful match played between 2 poor sides.  If memory serves, Diggle had 'the slope' in the first half and were as dismal as the weather on the day.  We produced virtually nothing of quality (despite having a good goal chalked off for offside), and Shepley should have been in front at half time with a handful of decent chances.

The second half showed Diggle in better spirit and they penned Shepley back in their own half.  However, rarely, if ever, did the Shepley goal look under threat and Diggle lacked any sign of creativity to get beyond the obdurate Shepley centre backs who were disciplined and in control of all in front of them.

Shepley took the lead on the hour - big boot, Diggle defence asleep, alert striker latches onto aforesaid 'big boot', said striker neatly rounds exposed Diggle keeper; striker rolls ball into empty net.  Cue the cabaret as the tackles begin to fly in, idiots running on the pitch, referee nearly loses control, one Diggle player becomes pantomime villain for the afternoon much to the amusement of the Shepley crowd, foul language abounds, yellow cards begin to appear and we begin to look like the pub team we've been striving to get away from.  Oh, and Shepley make it 2-0 with seconds to go.

Altogether an abysmal afternoon's work from a shambolic Diggle side who, after the game, had more excuses for failure (pitch, ref, weather, the way Shepley play, leaves on the line, dog ate their homework, alarm clock didn't go off, etc etc) than your average Labour Government minister.  Good sides examine the reasons for failure; crap sides just conjure up excuses to justify failure.

Anyway, enough of this self criticism.  Let's look at the Barlow Cup match.

Pre-match, the Manager, quite calmly for him, took his players through the failures of the away visit to Costa Del Shepley, and put it to his players that they had worked far too hard this season to let the last game be the real reflection of the real Diggle. The players were urged to earn the right to play, earn the right to win, and blame no one but themselves and their Manager if they fail to succeed.  The message struck home.

Diggle started the game very brightly indeed - aided by the very late showing of Shepley who looked, unlike they normally do, very disorganised.

The home side dominated the game from first minute to last (apart from a little bit in the middle that we will come to later) and looked like a much more focused and professional outfit than they had shown away at Shepley.

Diggle spurned decent chances to score within the first ten minutes - Wayne Broadbent went.....(to be honest, there's no point putting what Broady did, because regular readers can fill in the blanks on what our hard working hero did!) and Chris Moore had two decent half chances but couldn't convert.  (We'd best call them half chances, coz Chris might get upset if we call them full, easy peasy chances).

Diggle took the lead on 20 minutes when 2 of their best performers on the day - Bev  Mayall and Jeff Whittaker - combined to create a chance for Mooresey.  Mayall clipped a delicate free kick to the right corner of the Shepley defence, Whittaker whipped inside his marker and then laid a ball into the path of Moore. The in form striker twisted his body and carefully rolled the ball into the Shepley goal from just inside the 18 yard box, leaving the Shepley keeper stranded.

Boosted by the early goal, Diggle pressed forward in search of more goals.  Enter the referee who became the subject of much debate on the Diggle sideline.

(As an aside, the ref asked to be paid before the game.  We joked that that was insurance in case he had a bit of a nightmare. Many a true word spoken in jest it seems - or at least it seems to us blinkered, biased Diggle people anyway).

Anyway, can any of you remember the 1982 World Cup semi final? West Germany v France? Remember the German keeper Harald Schumacher, and the less well known French utility player Patrick Battiston?  Remember how Schumacher came flying out of his goal and almost decapitated Battiston? Well, it wasn't a million miles away from Shepley's keeper coming out and flattening poor Chris Moore in this rather less important Cup game. Moore made the mistake of trying to get a shot in just milliseconds before a ginger torpedo crashed into him.  As Moore lay in a Patrick Battiston shaped heap on the ground, the whole world (OK, a bit of an exaggeration) stopped, open mouthed, as the ref pointed for a dead ball saying that Moore had got his shot away and, therefore, we had had the advantage.

The referee was unmoved despite the Diggle protests.  Move the game on another five minutes and Moore raced on to another defence splitting pass, cue Mr Schumacher to come racing off his line and this time take Moore just above his ankles - ouch, Moore ends up in another heap.  This time the ref awards Diggle a free kick, but to our amazement, no card - red or yellow - for the Shepley keeper. Fair enough, there were defenders in the vicinity, but they were all behind play at the point that Moore was chopped down.  It seemed odd to us.

Roll the clock on another 10 minutes and the Shepley keeper produced 2 of the best saves you will see at our humble level of football, denying Wayne Broadbent and the unlucky Chris Moore from certain goals.

Diggle felt very hard done to.

[In the interests of balance, no one at Diggle - even Chris 'Battiston' Moore - thought that the Shepley keeper had tried to emulate Mr Schumacher.  The lad doesn't seem like that at all.  They were 2 mistimed, if dramatic, challenges for the ball.]

Oh, Shepley had a shot in the 35 minute - a free kick dropped into McWatt's arms in the Diggle net.

Half time 1-0.

Diggle opened the second half in good form and within 5 minutes of the restart had goal number 2. The very threatening, incredibly hard working, Whittaker struck from close range.

Goal number 3 soon followed, and it was the goal of the game.  Brilliant footwork from Mark Jackson was at the heart of this goal.  Jackson received the ball in his own half, jinked forward and inside, before caressing one of the best cross field balls you will see at our level from left to right into the path of Broadbent who tore forward past the Shepley left back. Broadbent squared the ball across goal and Jake Jacobs was on hand to stroke the ball home from close range - having made a brilliant run himself from the middle of midfield.

3 nil up after an hour and Diggle were cruising.  However, the showboat arrived too early and Shepley struck quickly to reduce the arrears to 3-1.  Diggle then took a trip on the lazy river ('cruising', 'showboat', 'lazy river' - sorry about this) and gave Shepley a few minutes of self belief.  Chief architects in the Diggle mid match snooze were Bev Mayall and Jake Jacobs who reverted to their awful habit of overplaying, overdwelling, playing backwards and generally stopping doing the simple stuff.  We must play for 90 minutes, not 60 gentlemen.

Having woken up from their sleep Diggle scored their fourth and final goal on 70 minutes, when Whittaker deservedly grabbed his second goal of the game with a cheeky lob over the Shepley keeper from the right hand side of the Shepley defensive area.

There was just enough time for Broady to surpass all other one-on-one misses of his career.  The ultra hard working midfielder rampaged through the middle of the Shepley midfield and defence, rounded the keeper, got within 6 yards of the open Shepley goal, dawdled and then got tackled.  The miss had the whole of the Diggle sideline laughing - apart from the Manager who concluded that somethings were just not funny, at all.  Broady has missed some one-on-one's in his time, but this was a one-on-none.

Game over 4-1.  The result was brilliant from Diggle's perspective - best performance of the season by a long way.  Every player was on top form and played with the honesty and simplicity that the Manager had asked for.  In the away game at Shepley, Diggle had shown the dangers of believing your own publicity - we were arrogant, petulant, lazy and excuse ridden.  In this game we were hard working, determined, skilful and honest.  We played with pace, ingenuity and discipline.

It was hard to pick out star performers, but we will:  Martin Mayall was tremendous at left back - aggressive, but fair, skilful but not over-elaborate.  Bev Mayall and Jake Jacobs (apart from the bit mentioned above) were the engine room of this victory.  Broadbent was bang on form and contributed hugely. Jackson was at his sublime best - but needs to trust his left foot and also needs to find his voice: way too quiet on the field Jacko - no prizes for a vow of silence here.  Whittaker and Moore (and Clarke when introduced) proved too hot to handle for Shepley's over worked defence.

Shepley must have been hugely disappointed.  They are always so hard to beat and so well organised.  They arrived late, prepared badly, lost an influential player within the first 5 minutes of the game and offered nothing in the way of a contest. This was pretty much what one of their best players had to say just before the game ended.

Question for referees, to end this week's report: as we know, we don't have linesmen in our League.  Each team nominates someone to carry the ref's flag and run the line.  My question is: are those lucky lads match officials or not? I only ask because on Saturday, the Diggle liner (a bad 'un at the best of times to be honest) was called, and I quote: "a f.....g cheating c..t" by a Shepley player.  If I'm not mistaken, the same player made the same sort of comment over at Shepley in our previous match.  If the liners are actually officials for the day, then surely the referee should not tolerate his official being swore at in this way, on the grounds that surely he would not tolerate such language being directed at him.   This question isn't about the lad at Shepley, but in both matches the referees have waved away our questions about whether it is OK to swear at the club's linesman.  Surely referees should get a grip on this one, before the liners simply refuse to do the job anymore.