Soho 5 Viking Soccer Team 0
A must win match to see us through to the knock out stages saw us with a strong lineup.
Everyone was on time (apart from Joe) with both team having long warm ups.
Starting line up (left to right) Bertie (GK) ,Hemant, Colin, Jan, Sanj, Ed, Tom Luke, Cowley, Forlan and Stef up front.
We started brightly with some nice passing football, we settled quite quickly rather than our usual 15 min snooze, and 10 mins in Forlan turned their defence only to see his shot cleared off the line. A couple of corners from stef saw us hit the bar shortly after a long ball from Tom out to Cowley down the wing was crossed in for Stef to open up the scoring 1-nil.
A similar move shortly after saw Ed narrowly missing Cowley’s cross before Stef put another long ball through for Forlan who calmley made it 2-nil just before half time.
A couple of changes at half time with the left side off, Hemant replaced by TonyC and Ed by Joe who had finally digested his dinner.
with a 2-nil score line the defence was under instructions to keep it tight at the back especially our wandering journey man TonyC, some how Tony made it out of his half without being shouted to get back and put a ball down the left for Forlan to make it 3-nil.
A couple more changes with Varun on for Cowley and Marc on for Luke.
Tom broke from midfield into the box only to see his powerful shot ricochet off on post onto the other before being cleared by their defender as our players watched stationary in disbelief (try following up next time…..)
A tactical change with Joe a few pounds heavier from his dinner moving up top with the ever threatening Stef moving out to left wing.
Stef broke down the wing to put a low pass into the box, Varun picked up on the right, passed to Joe to shoot, who politely declied and passed back to Varun, unfortunately Varun was opening a pack of after eight mints for Joe so their defender got the ball and exited the box.
2 further changes a few mins apart with Forlan and Sanj off and Chi and Hao on.
Jan had been pushing up a bit from defence and put a delightful chip over the back four for Joe to run onto, Joe controlled it first time but his shot went wide. mumbling on the sidelines from the original left sided players with Ed getting the title of his biography nailed down "my left foot The story of Ed McKay" (soon to be a major motion picture featuring Daniel Day Lewis).
A tactical change with Jan moving up front with Joe, Chi on to the wing and stef back into defence, A free kick in midfield taken by Marc (or was it Stef) was picked up by Jan who played the ball out to Joe who was not going to make the same mistake twice and chipped/curved the ball round the keeper into the right corner. 4-nil and we were cruising.
The opposition had their heads down and were getting frustrated, one of their players got sent off for swearing in Cantonese at the exceptionally brilliant referee (note to self make sure always swear in English)
From the replay (a free kick for us) Stef floated a shot over midfield, up jumped Jan to head towards the goal catching their keeper off his line – 5-nil
Varun had a great run down the right wing, into the box and crossed seconds before being laid out by one of their players, after the ball crossed the box, the ref blew up for the foul and awarded a penalty. From nowhere Hao appeared to try and get the ball, Stef having waved away Jan and a few other players had laid the ball ready to take the kick, with cheers of "we want the Chairman" from the sidelines Stef had second thoughts and deferred to Hao with a comment "watch the dip on the penalty spot" up stepped Hao and fluffed the ball to their keeper.
Shortly after the whistle blew on a great victory.
Back in our club house (Yorkshire Pud) we had a sold turnout including Forlan having his first drink with us (Long Island Ice Tea followed by a Heineken beer)
Hao went home for a snooze however we waited for him before the votes for Mug of the day with over 20 votes he had downed a few pints before getting the award.
Man of the saw early leader Stef outvoted near the end with a late run from our solid midfield pairing of Tom and Luke with Luke pipping Tom to the post.
A great night out after, the locations and establishments should not be written down for fear of ending up on wiki leaks, suffice to say I had a snooze in one bar before arriving home with the sun coming up.
After a shaky start to the City League we have ended up with a strong squad, a bunch of social animals that frequent the viewing gallery at Yorkshire and some solid recent results and we are through to the knock out stage of the Cup.
One more match for this year on Saturday afternoon then a break until second week of Jan for a league match against ICSU and the following week by our next Cup match.
reporting direct from Canossa Hospital and wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Regards
Patrick
Goals & Assist*
Stef, Cowley assist
Forlan, Stef assist
Forlan, TonyC assist
Joe, Jan assist
Jan, Stef assist
*Stef insists he had 3 assits but I don’t recall the third, no doubt he will correct/mark the report and resend…..
