Shuttlewood 'thunderbolt' secures points for 4s

A much changed team from last weekend due to a long list of unavailable players throughout the Club was nevertheless 'on paper' a strong team.
However, for the opening 15 minutes, Leek played like strangers and struggled to find any rhythm with their passing. This allowed Shrewsbury to put early pressure on the home defence, although Jack Simpson in the Leek goal was rarely troubled during this period through some resolute tackling from the 4s 'dream team' of Rich Plant, Chris Shaw and Tim Tipper, aided by skipper Nick Grubb.
The first sign of team cohesion resulted in Jake Scragg opening the scoring for Leek from a Machin pass after 20 minutes, and five minutes later Scragg added his, and the team's, second goal from a direct short corner strike. This was the score going into halftime, although the home team were disrupted with a 'bloody' head injury to Scragg, courtesy of teammate Plant.
With Scragg's continued absence at the beginning of the second half, Shrewsbury were the better side and reduced their arrears somewhat fortuitously when a heavily deflected shot off the foot of Jamie Jones wrongfooted Simpson in the Leek goal.
For long periods of the second half the play was scrappy, but generally Shrewsbury had the better possession in pressing for an equaliser. Leek had further injury issues when Plant had to leave the field due to a muscle injury, leading to a change in the line up and George Mounsey showed his growing versatility in midfield during this period.
With two minutes remaining a break from defence by Shaw and Machin saw the latter passing to Toby Shuttlewood who unleashed a 'thunderbolt' into the roof of the net to secure the victory for Leek. Machin also completed a 'hat-trick' of assists with his pass for the goal.