FC Isle of Man Get Their First League Win
Saturday August 14th. Another historic day in the journey of FC Isle of Man as the club picked up their first win in the North West Counties Football League after a comprehensive 3-0 victory over Alsager Town on Saturday.
The game started at a fast pace with both sides cancelling each other out and were a little sloppy in possession. However, as the half progressed the Ravens began to take control of the game and started to create chances. The best chance of this period was in the 26th minute as Chris Bass Jr scuffed the ball over the bar following an excellent cross from Lee Gale.
Within minutes however, the Ravens pressure told as they took the lead after another Gale cross was pulled back across the box and midfielder Jack Camarda, arriving late into the penalty area, smashed the ball, left footed into the top left hand corner.
The Ravens continued to press and Ste Whitley picked the ball up on the half-way line and made a dashing run through to the edge of the box before playing a through-ball to Gale who just missed getting a toe on the ball. However, it was another Gale contribution that helped put the Ravens two up, right on the stroke of half time, as another beautiful cross was headed home gloriously by Luke Murray.
The second half started at a similar pace as the first, but it wasn’t long until we started to see the dominance in class from the Manx side. Whitley struck the post on the hour after rounding the keeper.
The third, and well-deserved goal, came in the 75th minute, and fittingly it was Gale, magnificent throughout, who scored it. A long ball was played over the top of Alsager’s defence and Gale raced through and placed his shot into the bottom left corner of the net.
FC Isle of Man could have gone on to score several more, but they were cancelled out by Alsager’s goalkeeper and last ditch defensive blocks.
Assistant Manager, Lee Dixon, was in ebullient form when we spoke to him after the game and believes the team is ‘getting better in every game.’
“There was a lot of stand-out performances today,” he said. “But across the board, I’m very pleased with the performance today.”
“We’ve kept a clean sheet and sometimes we’ll have to come away, not play well and hopefully keep clean sheets and nick a 1-0 result. Once we’re fit, I think we’ll overrun teams like we did today.”
“We could have been on nine points, but we’re being realistic, and we know where we are. We’re pushing towards winning the league, that’s our aim and we have to believe that we can win it.”
So after one of our longer road trips we now have five points and have started our climb up the table.
With each week it is noticeable to see the confidence in the team rise and they are looker sharper each game. Attention now turns to next week as The Ravens prepare for the trip to leafy Cheshire to take on the Cheadle Heath Nomads next Saturday.
