Away from home.
No Gaydar (center half).
No Sharman (center half).
No Handley (center half).
No Az (center half).
No Simmo (sometimes center half).
No Deano (sometimes center half).
No Dirky (Our only obvious center forward).
No Thompson, Sean, Andy or Keith (Our keepers).
No Gerry.
No Craig P (after half an hour when he did his hamstring).
No Ric.
So as a result of the above, we lined up with Tude (yep, Tude!!!!!) in goal. Dave Delivers at right back. Silk and Gaylo (yes, not a typo. I said Gaylo) at center half and Chuff at left back. Pascy went with five in midfield and played Luke and Sam on the wings with Craig, Cooky and Jim in the center. Up front we started with Craigy P.
We started as we expected to start. On the back foot and under pressure! Damage limitation!
We were all over the shop in the first ten minutes and it looked like it would only be a matter of time before we went behind. It’s fair to say we rode our luck at times and were thankful for their poor finishing (Still better than ours mind) and our good fortune.
As the game wore on their pressure continued but we did seem to get to grips a bit more with our roles. We even came close a couple of times to taking the lead. Sam nearly scored our goal of the season wide out on the right with a quality volley, whist Pickering managed to miss a sitter!
Tude’s first attempt at a save did little to fill himself or the team with confidence and his kicking was worse than Thompsons (again – not a typo). However, after his first attempted save, Tude who was doing the team a huge favour by helping out, went from strength to strength! It’s fair to say, if it wasn’t for him we would have lost! For someone who has never played an eleven a side game in goal before, he was just brilliant. He made several top saves including a quite spectacular one in the 2nd half, when I for one had given up any hope of him getting to it!
Tude wasn’t the only one who deserved real praise though. Although it took him five or ten minutes to get to grips with their left midfielder, Dave Delivers was superb at right back.
Jim and Cooky were also quality in the midfield and really improved as the game went on. Cooky showed great discipline and for someone so young to sit in front of the back four was great. He even started to win his fair share of headers in the 2nd half and was really unlucky not to pinch it for us with a brilliant header from a Sam corner late into the game. Jim played the more advanced role of the youngsters and like Cooky, improved as the game went on. He himself looked like he might pinch it for us after a mazy run into their box late on.
I could go through the whole team to be fair for every ones effort and commitment today, but the one other player that really stood out for us today was Gaylo. He himself couldn’t understand why he had been given such a high rating by everyone else, but the rest of us were all in agreement that he did a quality job. He was probably a lot of people’s last choice to play at center half and the laughter backed that up when Pascy read out the team, but after discussions late into Saturday night at the Boat club and The Beams, the hierarchy agreed that he was the best option. And how right we were. He actually won headers and challenged for the ball!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I keep saying it, but this isn’t a typo again) He listened to his fellow defenders and really did do a great job!
His current Facebook status by the way reads: “Guy Davies is a world class centre back!”
That’s enough praise for one match report anyway. It was only a draw after all.
The game pretty much followed the same pattern for the whole ninety minutes. They dominated possession and put us under pressure constantly whilst we defended for our lives and occasionally had the odd half chance to sneak a goal at the other end. I haven’t got enough time to go through all their chances, but thanks to Tude’s heroics and the teams battling qualities we managed to come away with a point. How? I’m not so sure!
Match Notes:
*Gaylo at the near post defending a corner that was played in low, in the last few minutes had the balls / stupidity to leave it and let it bounce off the post and go behind for a goal kick.
*Tude Skinned one of their forwards when he was being closed down from a back pass.
*Pascy’s tactics of 4-5-1 worked brilliantly.
*Gaylos handball in the first few minutes was so blatant it was untrue. He could maybe have seen red.
*Gaylo drove back from Reading to secure us a point on the morning of the game.
*Pirate made his comeback.
*Pickering did his hamstring
*We were the only nil nil draw in the whole of the Saturday and Sunday Kiddy league this weekend.
