Match Report
The last time the Vets played away at Willaston they lost 11-1. But those were different days. With McNay playing.
This time it was Bodey in charge. An altogether better (and more determined) captain and McNay wasn’t in the starting lineup. There was a setback though. After his sterling performance in Pollença, Mornington still hadn’t managed to fill out his passenger locator form and was missing in action. This meant a call up (down?) for Steve Hogan who held the line up well when the ball was played into feet and showed a rather fetching distain for balls that invited him to run onto through the channels.
The sun shone, we offered them the Hopkin twins when required and eventually we kicked off. Despite missing some big guns, we did have Kinsey. Which seemed a blessing until he fluffed the easiest of chances early on with a chip over the short keeper that scuffed his ankles. At half time the game was scoreless and the pressure seemed on.
Then the turning point. The Goalie, complacent having made some sort of well received save on the island, gave away an easy goal, coming for a ball he was never going to get to, having told the captain not to worry. The captain’s fury was internalised, the team’s was expressed in a sudden flurry of action. Gendall smashed one in off a Hopkins, Deano set about winning the game with a couple of well taken goals. We let one in in a moment of inadvertence, Deano calmed our nerves with another.
Dutton came to watch; he needs a little longer to recover from Mallorca. More importantly, McNay came to watch and ended up refereeing. Rather well. And gave his fee to a St John’s hospice in the pub. Sometimes he is better than even his own press.