Match Report
The 4th XI Report:
Youth and pace met guile and experience. Arth, Luke, John and Patrick made debuts for the new 4’s. It was at times a fairly feisty encounter…Hulme playing for the 4’s booked for what the ref deemed could only have been a deliberate late challenge (we all know better)…but another great experience for the young players of the 4’s who will have hugely benefited from this match.
After some great use of pace and a once in a lifetime hit from a free kick from the captain (who will now retire from free kick taking), 4’s found themselves 5-1 up. A spirited fightback from the vets bought it back to 5-4 with the last kick of the game and, perhaps riding their luck at times, the development squad managed to pick up their first win.
The Vets’ Report:
The young may have fitness, enthusiasm, skill, verve, eternal optimism, confidence and speed. But that was never going to be enough to overcome the sheer experience of the Vets, was it? Well for twenty minutes, it didn’t look like it would.
Crutchley was lost to injury early on, but not before he had missed an absolute sitter / brought out a great save from the opposition keeper (* delete as you think most likely). The dominance eventually paid off, Mornington setting up Rogers well for an easy finish.
But then that confidence thing kicked in. It comes from not yet having accomplished 30 years of persistent failure. Bodey was outwitted by a Rabona cross which floated over the heads of a bewildered defence and landed at the far post. The finish was confident too. The 4th XI then went ahead with a calm but rather slow finish into the bottom corner for which the keeper made no effort. “You need a protractor” said someone, with both accuracy and foreboding.
The confident start in the first half was not replicated and the second half was poor for 30 minutes. A well taken third goal followed a 40-yard free kick from Hopkins which sailed over Power’s head and not over the bar, as he expected, but in off it instead. Set square, protractor, anything at all would have been useful. That goal, followed by another shortly afterwards (a cross-penalty box pass from Bodey to the Robin Kendall’s deadly finishing grandson), killed the game dead. Or did it? Three goals in ten minutes from Harthan, McNay and Mornington (what odds would Paddy Power have given on any of them scoring, never mind all three) brought it back to 5-4, but then the final whistle blew.
So no wins in October, but every chance that some of those young boys will stay with us to have that joie de vivre slowly but slowly sucked out of them.