Match Report
Chris Clay scored last week, he asked me why it wasn’t in the match report and now it is. The wrong one but it’s in, you’re welcome Chris…..
On to matters arsing this weekend, and our old “friends” SMOB were the visitors. Normally the game is refereed by Barry, the politest hardcase referee in the area, however he wasn’t available so big Tony had the honour, i’m not sure he will be rushing back to participate in the fixture again. The twin axis of evil that is Cagsy’s gob, and Jason’s inability to know the difference between a tackle and an assault left him upset enough to write to the honorary fixture secretary and Jim Bailey to make his views known. I have a theory that Jason is late for so many tackles because his opposition still think he is far away and they have more time on the ball due to his diminutive stature. Small, bald and goes the gym, what can possibly go wrong with that heady mix…….. He may be the first person to be blackballed to both play for, and against us.
The game itself was played in beautiful conditions which it appeared the Ramblers were enjoying a bit too much in a turgid opening 15 minutes that saw the visitors take the lead with a goal after a shot came back off the bar, i’m not sure we would have needed any lines drawn up to arm pits to decide that he was offside, but the goal stood, which is more than can be said for Lee Whittingham, who soon after rolled his ankle and couldn’t continue. Unfortunately we had lost Colin just before kick off which meant we had to play on with 10 men, on a warm day, 1-0 down. This wasn’t a time to feel sorry for ourselves, and we equalised soon after, a neat exchange of passes between Egan and Lewis, and a cool finish by Kinsey restored parity in the scoreline at least. The rest of the half was played out without much incident, and very little goal threat at either end.
A re-shuffle saw a conservative 4-4-1 implemented, ready for the second half onslaught as legs grew tired. This isn’t a vets side that likes to lose though, or indeed does it very often, and a mixture of organisation, determination, and sheer bloody mindedness saw the visitors frustrated, in Jason’s case enough to see him sin binned for 10 minutes after his umpteenth late challenge. The parity in numbers for a while allowed the Ramblers to get further up the pitch, and a headed goal by Lewis was harshly ruled out for a push. I say parity, at this point Lewis didn’t know which leg to limp on more, his knees were formally known as operating joints. Eddie Jones joined us for the last ten minutes to see out the game and earn an excellent draw. For many reasons this was our best performance of the season, never has a draw felt so good. Everyone who played can be proud of their performance. The organisation and resilience of the defence. The work rate and effort of the midfield, and the desire to play when possible, and the forwards for running tirelessly and selflessly, and in pain in Lewis case. A true team performance where nobody wanted to let each other down. On we go!