Wardens winning run against RS Sports comes to an end

By James Smith

28th Mar 2023 | Football


RS Sports beat Kenilworth Wardens 3-2 to end a run of five straight defeats to the South Warwickshire side (image supplied)
RS Sports beat Kenilworth Wardens 3-2 to end a run of five straight defeats to the South Warwickshire side (image supplied)

RS Sports finally got the better of Kenilworth Wardens winning 3-2 in the Stan Oulds cup, putting Wardens' chances of reaching the cup final in the league cup competition on hold.

Kenilworth went into the game top of the mini league with 10 points out of the first four games, knowing a win would put them with one foot in the final.

RS had lost their previous three games and were already out of the competition - but they started the game with a point to prove, after Wardens had beaten them on their last five meetings.

RS Sports took the lead after five minutes. Alex Waters tackled an RS forward in the box, to the bemusement of the Kenilworth players the referee adjudged the apparently clean tackle to be a foul. Cyrus Small put away the penalty.

Wardens had chances to equalise, with Toby Wells, Dan Twigger and Andy Legg all having shots kept out by the RS keeper. Wells had the best chance when his free volley from six yards out was side footed straight at the keeper.

However it was RS who were dominating the game, their long ball football and pace in behind troubling Wardens every time. Only a mixture of poor finishing, good goalkeeping by Andy Whitehouse and last ditch challenges kept the deficit to one.

But that would not last lost as RS scored a second when an under hit back pass was intercepted by RS' winger who rounded Whitehouse and scored a goal their dominance deserved.

Andy Legg came close to getting one back just before the interval, a free kick from Eamonn Richards was flicked on by Twigger to Legg only for his shot from a tight angle to hit the post.

RS immediately scored a third after the restart. Poor passing between Wardens' centre halves was intercepted and again allowed RS' player to round Whitehouse and tap in.

Wardens changed the personnel bringing on 17-year-old Jack Thomas for his first appearance since December - coming back from illness. The tactical changes and Thomas' introduction ignited Wardens who began to dominate play.

On 55 minutes Wardens had the ball in the net. A long free kick from Whitehouse was flicked on several times before being bundled in by Guy Pearson at the back post. However, to the anger of hosts, it was adjudged to be offside.

Five minutes later they had a legitimate goal their play deserved. Another free kick, this time from Thomas, was headed back across goal by Twigger, with Pearson tapping in.

In the aftermath of the goal a RS player was sinbinned for abusive language towards the linesman. RS managed the sin bin well with good game management.

Wardens did score another with 14 minutes left. An inch perfect Richards through ball found Thomas, who tucked into the bottom corner for his fifth of the season.

Wardens pushed for an equalizer, with Andy Legg coming closest when his header from a Pearson cross went inches over the bar.

And with his side's winning run over RS coming to an end, Wardens manager Richards said: "That first half performance was one of the worst I've ever been involved with as a manager. We couldn't do the basics well, we looked passive and scared of the ball. Completely unacceptable. We could have been 10 down at half time and deserved so.

"When we changed things on 50 minutes we looked so much better and if there was another 10 minutes in that game I felt we would have gone on to win.

"Realistically the first half performance is my fault, a fault I've made three times this season and despite almost 250 games as a player/manager I still need to learn and improve.

"On a positive note we could have folded at 3-0 but the lads showed some fight. And having Jack back is huge and we know we go to beat Dunlop next week would put us in an excellent position to get to the final.

"We learn from it, move on and we get better for next week."

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