League | Saturday 19th April | 3:00 pm
H.T. 1 - 0. Scorer Peers (87 pen). Att. 334.
Albion cut off their nose to spite their face in this fixture. The playing surface was in as good a condition as could be expected at this time of the season, but a strong, gusting and swirling wind blowing in over the Humber estuary was clearly going to make playing 'pretty' football nigh on impossible, and the wind had a major say in the outcome of this game. Added to this, the home side's brutal approach allied with an appallingly weak referee negated Albion's usual game completely.
With Witton playing against the wind in the first half, Jon Kennedy had to be alert to tip a shot from distance over the bar. Sad to say, Ferriby had clearly come out with a game plan of kicking Witton off the park, and they received little protection from the match officials. Several brutal assaults on Albion players eventually brought about the dismissal of a Ferriby player, but in truth the home side should have been down to at most eight players by half time. Before the dismissal though, around the half hour mark, a cross from near the right corner flag was caught by the wind and flew into the far top corner, giving Kennedy no chance whatsoever. This was the second freak goal in a few weeks that cost Albion two points. At the other end, the home goal somehow survived goalmouth scrambles on three occasions, one of these when Brain Pritchard's looping header over the 'keeper would have ended in the net on most days, but on this occasion the wind diverted its path and blew it back away from goal.
Nevertheless, with the wind behind them and up against 10 men, Albion fans were confident of victory. However, the expected onslaught did not arrive. Albion survived an early scare when a Ferriby player broke through the defence but ran the ball out of play. The rest of the game was pretty much played in the Ferriby half, but Albion had no sense of urgency, and most frustrating of all just would not shoot. This was a time when principles must surely have been sacrificed for pragmatism, a direct approach would surely have resulted in victory. As it was, I can hardly remember a shot on goal in the first 35 minutes of this half. A number of dead ball situations and good crossing positions were squandered, there was virtually no service to Adam Warlow. Warlow was clearly fouled in the area around the 80 minute mark, but no spot kick was given. However with three minutes left another clear foul in the box did result in a penalty, and Mark Peers coolly slotted it home. There were strong appeals for handball in the box almost immediately after the restart, but incredibly even in added time Albion seemed to have little urgency, passing the ball along the back line as if it were the opening minutes of the game. A very strange and disappointing performance.
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