Goals: Nathan & Forlan
With only 12 confirmed on friday started ringing round to get extra player, however for every extra recruit someone else dropped out.
a late call on Saturday from somewhere that sounding distinctly like a pub and we picked up another 2 players – Henry and "Hemant"
I had a starting 11 4:4:2 on paper of Bertie " i could do with some pints" Keeper, left-to-right Tel, Pablo, Colin, TonyC, Stef, "Hemant", Raul, Scott, Nathan Forlan.
Unfortunatly Raul was lost so Henry took his spot.
Having talked up the opposition, highlighted the cr*ppy pitch, late night slot, likely biased refs all adding up to a fix against first division side run by the league organisers it was a plesent suprise to totally 100% dominate the first half with someone spotting Bertie lying down in goal. some highlights below:
– Henry but a sublime through ball for Nathan to latch onto, he rounded the keeper, took his trademark 10 extra touches than required and calmly stotted in after 5 mins 1-nil Spartans.
– Terry put a long high ball from the half way line into the box with 2 guys unmarked at the back but failed to convert
– Stef had a cross/shot from the left that hit the post
– Stef put a perfect through ball for Forlan however his shot was saved
– 15 mins in TonyC won a free kick, H put a low fizzling shot across goal and cleared for a corner, Stef’s subsequent corner saw H rise up and head to goal only for a defender to clear off the line
– Stef/tonyC /Nathan were working well down the left interplay with Stef shooting
– Henry broke out of our half and was taken out with the subsequent tsunami felt in Australia as he crashed to the ground
– 25 mins Nathan replicated H’s through ball for the first goal, Forlan replicated Nathan’s goal (minus 9 touches) to make it 2-nil.
– 30 mins in Forlan pounced on their keeper who had come out of his box, passed the ball to unmarked Steff with an open goal however the shot never reached the net as 2 defenders hurried back.
half times changes off came Henry "nearly mug of the day" Vera volunteering to come off only to comment how much he was enjoying the match after then 2nd half kicked off, Colin as Varun wanted his shoes back.
regig with Ed going on the left Varun on the right and Nathan filling in centre back and Stef up front with Forlan. Nathan survived only after brandishing his phone to show a text stating he would get a full match if he turned up…
5 mins later Stef off for Chi how moved to left back as the back line shifted and Nathan going in midfield with Scott up top.
Jeff having gone to the wrong pitch arrived with 20 mins to go came on for "Hemant".
Highlights of the second half….not many really, the ref decided to take their side with some laughable decisions, Forlan fell over in the box one-on-one with the keeper, Nathan had a free kick, got booked, took it again and hit the second one higher over the bar than the first, Varun did a nice pull back in the box confusing the defender and keeper leaving Jeff to slot into an open goal…………nope it stayed at 2-nil.
We saw out the match to go through to the quarter finals.
Back in Yorkshire: man of the match Terry edged Stref and mug of the match Cowley for wanting a new job in the week and then missing this march sucking up to current boss….
Note we have played 9 games and all trams in our league. 3 wins 1 draw and 5 losses and we are fifth in the League. 3 get promoted and we are 10 points off 3rd spot so still and outside chance of some silverware in the league.
