If titles were won on heart, we’d have our names engraved on the Div. 3 trophy already after another gutsy victory snatched from the jaws of defeat at South Island School last night. Missing a handful of regulars, we started off looking oddly disjointed and let the up-for-it Bankers Club take a 1-0 lead. We worked hard to get back into it after that, Jeff scoring a smashing individual goal, but from 1-1 we suddenly found ourselves looking down the barrel of 3-1. Thankfully this woke us up and we started playing smarter, with Coombes buzzing around and pressing their defenders into mistakes and Rich taking the game to them with some quick movement and a clinical finish. A nice one-two between Coombes and Pablo saw Coombes finish well to get us back on level terms just before the halftime whistle. 3-3, game on.
Having got back to level pegging, we all agreed that we just needed to keep our shape and play the simple balls to take the initiative, then promptly did the exact opposite, starting the second half in the same way we finished the first and going 5-3 behind. But just like the first half, we pulled our socks up and showed what a Spartans team are made of, Dan and Pablo shoring up the defence to get us back on an even keel while Ben went into goal and showed his untapped potential as a future England No.1. Up top, we raised the tempo with Rich and Coombes pulling defenders left and right, while Leon and Jeff dug in at both ends of the pitch. After a Pablo goal started the comeback, Rich hit a great double to put us in the lead for the first time in the match. There was more drama to come however as the Bankers Club pulled it back to 6-6, but another goal from the tireless Rich (who had run 7km from Sheung Wan before the match, just cos) made it 7-6 with three minutes left on the clock, after which we weathered some late pressure to hold on for another hard-earned win.
Team (& scorers): Pablo (1), Dan, Ben, Jeff (1), Matt (1), Leon, Rich (4)
We’ll have to beat teams a lot better than Bankers Club if we want to win this division, but we’re looking very hard to beat ourselves without yet hitting top gear, so we’ve got a great chance if we field a settled team between now and the end of the year and really find our groove.
