Spartans Vets start league with a Bang…Pop..& a Crack

Marched onto sunny Shing Mun Valley sports ground, a place that looked like hard, full of real men, maybe a murder or two & frequent riots, reminded me of my recent trip to the UK.

My GPS had expertly guided me to dark dingy council estate full of dodgy looking geezers, I looked back at the car with a final glance, would I see it again?

Pitchside we had 8 players, but more of a concern Bobby was in a good mood, might have something to do with the 2 magners pre match warm up in the stag, flabbo & Alan ‘bite your legs’ Bickham, with Kenny hobbling onto the pitch, meant we had a team, game on.
Like the previous weeks victory we started off with a 4.1.41 formation, unlike that game though Kenny started in goal, as Rich ‘Kitten’ Avery, could not make it, something to do with a bad tummy, too many fur balls, a back four of Boris,Bobby,Flabbo,Ricky, wee manney Kelly playing the defence midfield role, Pat,Jimmy,Mike,Chi & Alan playing the sole forward line up, we kicked off.

In a parallel universe on the outskirts of the ground, Skurno was driving round & round in circles,with several other players, very similar to national lampoons euro vacation, calling me up saying we can see the lights, but can’t get to the ground, could be a long night.

Meanwhile pitchside after brief tactical instructions, endless diagonal balls to Alan, who wasn’t quite grasping the concept of the offside rule, apparently something to do with the speed the linesman puts up his flag, my attention was drawn to a pack of mongrel dogs fighting over the remnants of a bag of chips, at the time it was more interesting to watch & if they had boots I was seriously thinking of bringing a couple of them on, bit more bite to the team maybe? 

Then it happend, something went pop, Boris vigorously calling for a sub, hamstring had gone, he had been over doing it at the gym to impress a nice bird on the exercise bike & knackered himself, luckily H had turned up wearing his nice new Spartans kit with his IQ on the back & slotted straight in.

Skurnos fun bus had arrived & we made several changes & positional amendments, this pretty much made an instant impact, as we started to play a bit of football, with H bringing the ball out from the back linking well with the ever consistent Mr Rose, we started to create a few chances & began to dominate the game.

A good few passages of play down both flanks & the ball gets crossed over to Pat, Bosh were 1.0 up, thats 2 goals in 2 games now, can’t ask more than that & he’s winning the bet 2.1 that he will get more goals than cards this season, but it’s still early days & we all know Pat. 

Half time comes & were feeling that another goal will kill their slight resistance off & with wee man Kelly & Rose telling players how to didnae do dis & didnae do that, I left them to it, to chat to the dogs.

Super Dan graciously went in goal at half time, because Kenny was hungry & off we went, lets push forward & get that all important cushion of a second goal, unfortunately Mike seemed to forget that point, maybe because, he’s the elder statesman of the team & may be getting mild alzheimers, he had been watching too much arsenal play & thinking he was a tippy tappy waiflike fabregas, managed to play the ball quite expertly in the path of the opposition forward, who presided to place it in the back of our net……we had just conceded our first ever vets goal & it was ALL Mikes fault!……….As a team everybody agreed.

How would we respond to this psycological blow, this dagger in the heart, we started to play our best football of the game that’s how.

Skurno & Tel were linking up well down the left creating some fantastic crosses for the forwards, Kelly & Rose winning everything in the middle of the park, Chi & Ricky dominate on the right, Henry & Bob, scalling over the forwards with all the stealth of a gekko on a shower wall, albeit with a full head of hair, we were looking good & it was only a matter of time before our reward would come.

A nice through ball from Rose was latched on by Flabbo, with the speed of a 3 legged mongrel grayhound, found himself 1 on 1 with the keeper, never in doubt, placed comfortably inside the post, we were back in the lead, We went on the attack looking for another & again the same pattern of play with good midfield play setting Flabbo up again with an ice cool finish, like the previous game he had scored 2 & was on a hatrick, would he get it, would he F*ck!

The last 15 minutes of play saw us control the game, with Bob & Chi flattening their forward & Bob getting his first Yellow of the campaign, Henry & Tel having a heated debate about what they were going to drink post game, I believe H wanted a selection of light beers, while Tel wanted to go straight for the Sambuca, and plenty of it, but they both agreed they would probably need a fire extinguisher after last time, & Kenny running himself to exhaustion in his food stained white tshirt, we had won our second game 3.1.

Onwards & Upwards.

 

I need to thank you all for playing & finding this place, I’m going to try to keep the team away from this venue going forward.