With six teams in action from the North Division and four teams playing in the South Division, #MatchweekTwo provided us with another exciting round of fixtures in the ESPFA 2021/22 season.
NORTH DIVISION
Skelmersdale United kicked off their season with an impressive 4-0 victory over Witton Albion. Forwards Will Green and Dominic Evans were on hand to provide the goals for Skelmersdale United and netted a brace each. Green was also named as the #PlayerOfTheWeek for his efforts in #MatchweekTwo. Runcorn Linnets managed to keep hold of top spot for another week after putting in another brilliant performance and beat Ossett United 0-6 away from home. Lucas Wilson scored a brace with the rest of the goals shared around the team to make it two wins from their opening two fixtures. Brighouse Town also won their second win from as many matches to keep up with Runcorn at the top of the division after beating Belper Town 6-2. Logan Sheridan scored twice for Brighouse in a win that means just goal difference is keeping them from the top spot.
SOUTH DIVISION
The South Division played host to the ‘Key Matchup’ for #MatchweekTwo where Rushall Olympic (Amber) hosted Kidlington. With both sides impressing in #MatchweekOne and starting their campaigns with high scoring victories, this game was crucial in establishing early dominance in the division. On this occasion, it was Rushall Olympic (Amber) who flexed their muscles with a very resounding 3-0 victory, but they were made to work for the three points. At half-time the game was tied up at 0-0 with Rushall seeing most of the ball and created some good chances but Kidlington were hanging on and defending well. In the second half the game opened up a lot more and both sides were getting in on goal a lot more frequent. In the 70th minute, Rushall Olympic (Amber) finally broke the dead lock when Sam Grecu slotted the ball home after it landed to him from a corner. Grecu then doubled his tally and Rushall’s lead after he drove a low shot into the bottom corner before Kristian Storer scored a brilliant goal from outside the box to put the icing on the cake for Rushall Olympic (Amber).
In the only other game in the South Division, Chesham United travelled to rivals Yate Town to try and keep up their winning start. In a very tight and closely contested game, Yate Town managed to edge out their opponents and win 2-1 to give them their first points of the campaign. Chesham will be disappointed with the result, as this is the first division game they have lost since the 2019/20 season. Both sides now sit on three points from two games and will be hoping to catch Rushall Olympic (Amber) at the top of the division with the leaders having no game next week.
Team of the Week
Congratulations to the students that made it into this week’s #TeamOfTheWeek and a special mention goes to #ESPFALancashire (Skelmersdale Unite) student Will Green, who scored two goals and helped Skelmersdale United on their way to victory to earn himself the title of #PlayerOfTheWeek.
The Highlights Show
As usual, you can watch all the goals and match highlights from #MatchweekTwo on The Highlights Show. This week we saw some brilliant goals from both divisions, including great team worked goals and some sweet strikes.