Images kindly supplied by Simon Evans

A quiet start to the football season at Oak Park last Saturday (16th July 2016) as the lads from the Wood faced the mighty Chasetown in a pre-season friendly that sadly, didn’t go the Woodmen’s way.

Sorry for the delay in posting this, it’s been one of those weeks…

Simon Evans submitted some great images, and Bill Shaw sent the following match report:

Hiya Bob,

Hardly the start we wanted, but winning friendlies doesn’t win you anything.

Nevertheless a good work out against a higher division side who had benefitted from an earlier game and it really showed.

Walsall Wood 0 v 4 Chasetown

Wood started their pre-season programme with this game against local rivals Chasetown, the visitors who had played at Hednesford last Saturday were much sharper from the start and kept Wood pegged back in their own half. It was no surprise when on 20 minutes Paul Sullivan opened the scoring with a low drive into the bottom corner. 12 minutes later an incisive run in from wide on the right by Peter Till saw him open up the Wood defence with a lovely ball into the left of the box, Sullivan calmly slotting the ball past the advancing keeper Andy Hughes. It was Till again 4 minutes later powering into the right of the box, crossing to the far post to find Mitch Piggon who scored with a powerful header.

Wood made wholesale changes at the break but went further behind on 56 minutes when Piggon finished off a right wing move involving Garfield Robinson (playing for a seventh club against Wood in three seasons) and the impressive Matt Curley.

Wood were more competitive in the last 30 minutes, but apart from a Joey Butlin low drive that was well saved they struggled to make any headway against a solid defence.

Wood’s only other home friendly is on Thursday night with Leicester side Aylestone Park the visitors.

The season starts for Wood on Saturday 6^th August in the F.A. Cup with a tricky trip to Brocton. Ironically the winners are at Chasetown in the next round on Saturday 20^th August.

Bill Shaw.

Thanks to Bill and Simon for the report, as ever.It’s a joy and an honour to publish them here.

For The Good of the Wood!