River Rising

River head coach Ithaqua has finally loosened the shackles on the River kids and the result? Three wins in four games and even managing to give runaway league leaders wortley afc an almighty fright.

Bouyed by recent back-to-back victories Crimea River took to the field at the Theatre of Tragedy in round 13 against league leaders wortley afc sporting an unusually offensive minded formation. A gung-ho plan rewarded in the 10th minute when Kris Richardson headed home a Dahbi Mansour cross. A lead that lasted a mere two minutes as Nigel Krippner bundled home after a River goalmouth scramble.

Much to the obvious surprise and delight of the home support River forward Richardson clipped home his, and his sides, second of the match on 15 minutes. Not to be denied wortley equalised through Jake Shiver on 40 minutes and took the lead on 44 minutes following a crisp Rai Kike shot from outside the penalty area to seal a 3-2 win for the visitors.

River travelled to F.U.B.A.R for the round 14 fixture to Crimson Tigers for a match many pundits dubbed movable force meets movable object.

Gerard Folan got things rolling for the Tigers with a delightful chip on 29 minutes before Carl Spegel struck for the visitors on 34 minutes to level the scores. Kris Richardson continued his rich vein of scoring form with a 73rd minute freekick and Niksa Ubovic wrapped things up for the visitors on 88 minutes as River secured a 3-1 victory over their table bottoming rivals.
"The lads and I had a quiet word with the boss a few weeks back," enthused River forward Kris Richardson post-match, "we've been very defensive for almost a season and a half and it was clear things were not working. Sure we avoided too many complete doings but the squad agreed if we were going to lose we'd rather lose fighting."
"So, yeah, we aired our grievances and got things changed around a bit and you can see the difference in our recent results. Hopefully things will not change around too much tactically though,obviously, we all realise that development of the entire squad is the priority at this stage of the season."