Our first point of the season, but the game was marred by Dirky breaking his wrist in the first ten minutes. Just as Sam made a shock return to the team after dislocating his shoulder only weeks ago, Dirky ruled himself out for months with a horrific break!
We went behind in the game early on after Silk failed to make a good enough challenge on their forward which allowed the ball to break in their favour. Hale was the covering defender and looked to make a great last ditch tackle to deny their player of a clear cut chance in front of goal. The Ref who didn’t end the game as the most popular person in the world, thought differently though and awarded them a Penalty.
1-0.
We had been forced to reshuffle the team once again for various reasons before Dirky went off injured. Once he had left in the ambulance, the team shaped up with Andy (Gonge’s brother) in goal, Dave Delivers at right back, Silk and Deano at center back and Hale at left back. Craig B made his debut for us in center mid and looks like a great addition. He played alongside Simmo who picked up this week’s man of the match award, and Luke and Sam were on the wings. Craig P ended up playing alongside Gaylo up front.
We were by no means the better team but we felt harshly done by, to be behind. Especially after a controversial penalty. We created the better chances after their opening goal but failed to take any of them. That was until midway through the 2nd half when Simmo picked out Craig P with a ball over the top and Craig made it one a piece with a nicely taken finish.
1-1.
The game got more and more heated (bloody Gaylo) as it went on and resulted with a punch being landed on young Luke. Pascy and others got involved but luckily it all calmed down before a 22 man brawl broke out! Apparently Luke had elbowed their player initially but I was away with the fairies like usual, and didn’t see any of it.
Another contentious issue was their linesman flagging us for offside with every attack we had. To be fair, I couldn’t really see from where I was playing so can’t really say too much now. I did at the time though, and was lucky to escape a yellow. Az was also fortunate not to go in the book for voicing his frustrations!
The game did finish one all, but it could have easily gone either way. We were lucky at one point to get away with a back pass to our keeper which very nearly resulted in the ball ending up in the back of our net, and at the other end Sam picked out an unmarked Silk at the back post from a corner, only for him to head over by a good yard or so.
*Observations:
Gaylo after a night in = Potential match winner
Gaylo after a night out = NOT amazing!
