You've got to love 'em. Good ol' Reays. Actually, most of them are alright. Well, maybe not most of them, but a few of them. There's at least two of them that are impossible to like, one of which crumpled for a very soft pen last night. BOC were indignant, and had a cause to fight for... Giving away a questionable penalty was just what we needed to get fired up.
Quite a few regulars missing this week so we called on Tony Henry and Mark from F&P to make up the numbers. A late entry into the squad from Neal Chettle meant we had twelve on the night with Latchford, Sheedy, Chettle and Zondervan subbing on and off. Starting lineup had Tyson in goal, back line of Mark, Neal, Andy and Sheedy; midfield of Punter, Zondervan, Tony and Jordan with Ilyas and Huckerby up top. No Weir or Charlie George so there were bound to be goals conceded, lots of marauding, and a back line that wasn't straight.
The first 15 or 20 minutes were pretty even with BOC probably shading the possession and better chances. We went 1 - 0 up with Nick Huckerby bagging the first of his three, squeezing in at the near post from an Ilyas through ball. Reays equalised shortly after with Ivan converting a cross from the right. BOC still looked dangerous though, with Jordan seeing a smart left foot shot parried by the keeper and a spate of corners which we failed to capitalise on. The turning point came after about 30 mins when the Jackson Flash closed down their striker who received the ball into feet in the area. Jacko offered half a nudge / kick to the ankles as the striker controlled it. It was a foul and probably gets you a penalty from a proper ref if you have one, but certainly wasn't enough to dump the reays lad onto his knees. He crumpled and flung his arms out like so:
A very soft pen, but they wanted it. Tyson was having none of it though. 'You can't have a penalty for that! What about all those fouls up there on Latch? You've been watching too much TV mate! This 'aint the Premier League!' And then, my favourite, as the tight-topped, tight-clad-leg adonis ran up to take the kick: 'WANKER!'. As Roy Walker often said, 'say what you see' and I think Tyson got it bang on, speaking the internalised thought of every BOC player in great style.
The atmosphere was poisoned by the sense of injustice, and BOC rallied to turn the game on its head in the second half spurred on to fight for all that is good and sacred in the (no-referee) beautiful game. Latch got the equaliser which the stats will record as a header from an Ilyas corner, so I needn't mention that it spun up off his back into the far side of the goal. Jordan got our 3rd provided by big Chris Latch and Nick Huckerby got two more again from Latchford assists. A hat-trick for Huckerby to cap a fantastic display, no doubt inspired by cousin-twice-removed Helde's scoring turn in the game last week.
The last goal was an absolute cracker too. Tyson got the assist (ahem) launching a goal kick up field which Jordan brought down with ease and deft control. He then turned and went on a run beating four Reays defenders incorporating a few step-overs and a marseille pirouette before cracking a low shot from the edge of the area into the bottom left corner. Excellent performance from him, but also from everyone really. Very fluid in attack, and all playing for eachother. Any one of Jordan, Tony, Andy or Nick had a claim for MOM, but goes to the latter for three goals and fantastic work rate / attitude.
