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The Xchange were in a positive frame of mind with the knowledge that the top three had all dropped points the previous evening bringing the Xchange back into contention for the title after a poor start to the season. From the start their intentions were plain, probing the Shrewsbury defence with good attacking moves from the flanks. With only 7 minutes on the clock, some good individual work from Maw Thatun resulted in a low shot across the keeper into the bottom corner. Shrewsbury seemed a little shell shocked by the early goal and within 5 minutes Thatun was put through again, this time one on one with the keeper. A neat sidestep later and both the Xchange and Thatun were 2-0 to the good. A few minutes later and the Xchange lost Anders, their only able midfielder to a pulled hamstring, and the side quickly lost its cohesion with no central figure to pull things together.
This gave the Shrewsbury boys heart, and they began to pressure the Xchange, gaining confidence and putting together some decent attacking moves themselves. As they became more dominant in midfield, the Xchange were forced to play deeper, inviting Shrewsbury to run at them. When the whistle went for halftime the Xchange boys were happy for the break as the game felt anything but comfortable at that point.
The second half began with a couple of changes for the Xchange, but Shrewsbury were looking to get something out of the game. When it became apparent that their half time tactics weren’t working, the Xchange changed their central midfield formation to try to regain the anchor role that Anders had provided in the early stages of the game. At first this seemed to have little effect, particularly when a good ball from midfield resulted in the two Xchange forwards running into each other in a moment that would do well on America's Funniest Home Videos. However, within five minutes of the midfield change the Xchange had scored another two goals with a rare headed gem from Darren “Bullet” Morrell (we're sure he'll tell you about it), followed by Maw Thatun wrapping up his hat trick with another clinical finish.
Job done, the Xchange midfield reverted to its previous formation, and the rest of the game was played out with neither side really exerting any effort to change the scoreline. This fourth win in a row gives the Xchange hope for turning their season round following a disastrous start to the program, but now the new boys have bedded into the team things are looking good.
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