Goals: Jens & Stef
On a day when summer began, a full strong squad got up early to play a crunch game against the delightful gentleman of the mobsters, who came into the game full of confidence coming off a 2 game win & looking to cement their place in the division for another season, on the other side, we scraped a win against the french with an off-side goal, off of Cowley’s shin, who would win, close call.
The game started with us getting into our rhythm quickly & moving the ball well down both flanks, especially the left where Joe was causing them loads of problems, even using his left foot for a precise cross into the box, unfortunately we were not getting bodies into the box to capitalise on the good work the midfield were doing. At the back the new partnership of Dave & Bertie clicked into place straight away & with the composed play of Dave, bringing the ball out linking the play we were looking good & controlling the game in the right areas, but not creating enough for Jens & Jeff with the final ball.
Then, sometimes as we do, we lost concentration, just switching off at the wrong time, but I still can’t work out how a short fat ginger bloke can creep into the back post & head into the top corner, he wasn’t exactly inconspicuous.
This sort of energised the mobsters, & they decided to play a bit of football instead of focus on upsetting us, in the delightful way they do, a quick break down the left & they were in, with their forward shooting over from 5 yards out, a let off, the turning of the game perhaps, maybe?
Half time was near, H had got bored with the technical stuff of playing it out to Stef & Andy & building from the back, so decided to hoof it as high into the midday sun as he could, this obvious tactic confused the little ginger centre back & it bounced over his head, onto the path of Jens, who had said before the game he would score & obliged accordingly, the last 10 minutes of shouting & arguing with each other were over & forgiven, the half time whistle went & we knew this match was ours to win.
A simple tactical positional change at half time, where Gab basically advised that if he was to be kept on the right, he may do something naughty (and not in the nice way) to his opposite number, thus maybe causing a red card, decided to move ice man Jens onto the wing.
We started off well with some nice passing at times & more chances were happening, with the heat & teams tiring especially the mobsters the game was opening up.Jeff was running his socks off in the heat up front with Gab, & was causing them a lot of problems, making there new goalkeeper pull off some fine saves, that without doubt would of been a different story if the studz goalkeeper was playing instead.
We got a free kick on the left which Aiden took, floating it in beautifully & seemed to deceive the keeper somewhat, then after that your going to have to tell me what happened, all i know is it says stef scored on the team sheet, all i saw was a mass bundle with the ball in the net & asking the linesman if that was a goal or not, it was & we were 2.1 up with 20 to go.
Jens who was outstanding in both positions had got a knock (will be ok for sunday) & replaced by the energetic Medhi who fitted easily into his normal position.
We continued to keep a grasp of control on the game, restricting the mobsters to some long shots & dead ball situations, while creating some chances ourselves at their end, while getting free-kicks against us for being pushed, having our shorts practically ripped off & a few elbows of course, the ref was having a stormer, even the linesman was laughing at his decisions, (Gave the ref a mark of 6, keep him sweet).
Jeff came off with near exhaustion & sun stroke to be replaced by Cowley who chased down their back four to put pressure on them & keep them in their own half.
Everything was going well, then Bertie decided that he would go for a double, gave away one, on the saturday, why not sunday, but to be fair he did start attacking him well outside the box, only the momentum of the mobsters player took him into the box, so a penalty was given.
The mobsters player to take it had scored 5 goals in the previous 2 games, he wasn’t going to miss, but he bloody nearly need, H somehow got down to it & pushed it to his right, but unfortunately not quite enough & it went into the side netting, obviously knew H was a left hander, we won’t mention the ball creeping onto the post in the final minutes adding slightly more grey hairs to my already vast collection, but the points were shared.
With Antonhill & Swiss drawing & Colts getting beaten, & the french being relegated, it is a full on shoot out between 4 teams for 1 relegation spot, bring your bullets & lets stay up.
MOM – Dave, asked to do a job & seems we have found another centre back, good in the air & composed on the floor, linked up play well with the midfield, narrowly beating Joe, who was outstanding again on the left, both attacking & defending, closely followed by the silent assassin Rob, who just always seems to have a good game.