Breachwood Lions F.C vs Stevenage Outsiders F.C
Back to reality for Breachwood and Fildes on Monday morning and despite their defeat on Sunday there were many positives to take from the game. Before Breachwood began training on Monday Fildes confronted and made an example of centre back Rich Wharton for his late night last week causing him to miss the game, an ambulance arrived at Breachwoods state of the art training complex at around 9:20am called by Fildes backroom staff.
Despite Fildes putting a ban on any of the players and staff speaking to the press about the incident it is believed Fildes threw a football boot at Wharton in a heated exchange knocking his front tooth out and cutting his lip! He later posted a picture of his injury on social networks but refused to be drawn into how the injury occurred. If rumours are to be believed I’m sure it was a big wake up call to all the Breachwood players as to what Fildes expects of them!
Since Monday Fildes has also banned all players from turning up in Ferraris or Porsches telling them they are not celebrities so they need to stop acting like them. In an attempt to bring the fans closer to the players he demanded they all drive normal cars to show the fans they are normal people and not superstars. One player who seems unfazed by Fildes and his strict regime is striker Richard Taaffe who after failing to force through a deadline day move has now gone AWOL telling one national newspaper he will never don the Breachwood shirt again. Taaffe’s autobiography “I am Taaffe” is soon to be released in which he apparently openly criticises some of his fellow Breachwood team mates and team mates from two of his former clubs Rubin Kazan and Panathinaikos.
Wednesday saw the new head of the FA giving his speech on his vision for the England team and for clubs to bring through more young English talent, something Fildes will not have to worry too much about with 14 squad members for this Sunday’s game being English, the only exception being young Algerian starlet Adam Jefferies. Five players in the match squad emanate from the Breachwood academy, one player in particular to watch this season is Sam Canham who has been recalled to the squad this week. His performances last season drew comparisons to one of the greatest players to have come out of Breachwood’s academy Scott Jenkins aka ‘The White Gervinho’ whom many football experts described as the closest thing the Home Counties have seen to the perfect footballer. Sadly like all hugely talented young footballers Shotty J had his demons... guns, girls and drugs, eventually giving the game up at the tender age of 21. Hopefully Canham can be nurtured more carefully and fulfil his obvious potential.
Fildes also has seven players who graduated from Offley’s famous La Masia with young Charlie Page (Nate Pateman) hoping to make the breakthrough this season and finally fulfil the potential he has always shown. Fans will hope he can concentrate more on his football this season and less on his modelling career as he seems to spend a lot of time posting topless pictures of himself on social media sites much to the displeasure of his followers.
Fildes also has a young Jamaican winger/goalkeeper Harry Lovell to call upon this season many of the backroom staff at Breachwood have compared Harry to a cross between Usain Bolt and Bob Marley! Who knows in this World Cup year an injury to Walcott, Chamberlain, Milner or Zaha and Beckham refusing to come out of retirement could open the door for Page or Canham to make the plane to Rio should they catch the eye this season.
So Fildes first official home game at The Rec with the new East stand completed during the off season Breachwood now boasted the biggest stadium in the league seating 75,000. Fildes will need the crowd this season to be the team’s 12th man if they are to establish themselves in the top flight. Fildes said at his press conference on Friday that the word ‘nervous’ was not in his vocabulary and exclaimed that these kind of fixtures are what he lives for! He relishes the challenge and wants the fans to know he is one of them. His love for the game, his excitement about preparing the team for battle and most of all his passion for Breachwood was clear to see saying “I was born for this job, I am Breachwood Lions through and through.”
Fildes wants his players to die for the club and only 100% effort will be acceptable. He stopped short of calling himself the ‘special one’ but the gatherng press could tell there was certainly more than meets the eye when it came to this enthusiastic young coach, after all having spent years under the guidance of Ferguson, Mourinho and French he had certainly learnt from the best!
A glorious Sunday morning arrived and there was a real buzz around the stadium as fans and players were both confident of winning Fildes first home game as manager of the club. The changing room was silent as always despite Fildes not banning banter or talking in the changing rooms the players are afraid to speak in fear of incurring Fildes wrath! A sell out crowd roared the lions on to the pitch ensuring the players knew there was only one way to please these fans and that was by winning the game. Fildes decided to start with a 4-5-1 formation this week as opposed to last week’s 4-4-2 handing home debuts to Blobby in goal and Pagey and Robbi W in defence alongside James Mason and AJ. The three in centre midfield saw the return of Dan Dye to the starting line up alongside the ever-present Turk and DJ. The two wingers Charlie and Robbie P kept their places and Ollie Mason started as the lone striker.
Breachwood started the game extremely positively and dominated the opening 20 minutes. Ollie Mason particularly impressed and was a constant nuisance to the Stevenage Outsiders centre backs causing them to panic in possession and slice a number of clearances. Much to the dismay of the crowd and players Breachwood were denied a penalty by the referee who somehow adjudged that Ollie Mason wasn’t fouled when clean through on goal even though his legs appeared to be taken from beneath him. Breachwood deserved a goal for all their dominance but seemed to be lacking that final ball, the crowd weren’t getting on the players back instead they were roaring them on encouraging them to keep attacking! Breachwood had a succession of corners and much to the displeasure of the new groundsman Robbi W attempted an audacious overhead kick from one of these corners making solid contact but unfortunately was closer to the back of the North Stand than he was to finding the net! As Robbi landed the whole stadium could feel the tremor and the crater he left behind as he picked himself up was clear for all to see. Ollie Mason broke clear with 5 minutes to go before the interval and probably should have done better, but he tried to chip the ball over the on rushing keeper who managed to get a hand to the ball and then rush back and claw the ball back from crossing the line. Breachwood protested the ball had crossed the line but for the first time this season the new goal line technology Breachwood had heavily invested in was used, clearly showing the ball had not crossed the line. Breachwood had a near scare when from a corner the opposition tried to outsmart Breachwood and go direct for goal forcing Blobby into a fine diving save somehow preventing a almost certain goal. With the half drawing to a close Turk hit the bar with a header from an AJ (Milner-esque) whipped cross and Breachwood were disappointed not to be heading into the half-time interval with a comfortable lead. Seconds before half time a lapse of concentration in the Breachwood Lions defence allowed Stevenage Outsiders to score on the counter attack after DJ gave the ball away cheaply just inside the Lions half. Somehow Breachwood found themselves 1 nil down at half-time despite dominating the half.
At half time former manager Mickey French made a guest appearance and was greeted with a warm welcome from the fans, basking in the hero status he has worked hard at the club over the years to achieve. Also noted was the surprise appearance of want away striker Taaffe who is said to be trying to build bridges with his teammates after his recent outrageous behaviour.
The first 15 minutes of the second half was a really scrappy affair with the Outsiders appearing to be happy to give away silly free kicks and break play up as much as possible by arguing with the referee, desperate to do anything they could to prevent Breachwood getting into their rhythm again. Fildes could sense that he needed to change things up and put more pressure on the oppositions defence. Canham replaced Rob Pearson hoping to spark some life into the Lions attack. The second half was finally starting to settle and Breachwood were slowly starting to get a grip on the game although creating no clear cut chances. With 20 minutes to go Fildes brought on Martin Rees to replace James Mason, changing to a more attacking 3-5-2 formation. Breachwood seemed to create more chances and looked more dangerous when clipping the ball over the Outsiders defence for the wingers and forwards to run on to, maybe a new style of football is required by the lions who may not always be able to rely on the tika-taka football they have become accustomed with.
Ollie Mason with the assistance of Rees continued to bully the Outsiders defence and it was inevitable that Breachwood would finally get the equaliser they deserved. At long last Breachwood got the goal when Charlie received the ball from a Canham cross field ball out wide on the right drilling a low cross in to the box for Rees to tap in to the bottom corner sending 70,000 fans into raptures. The noise was unbearable, the look of relief on Fildes said it all; he knew his players would go on and win the game for him now! Outsiders were adamant the goal was offside but TV replays suggested otherwise showing Charlie was just onside. Outsiders were losing it now, they knew they were in trouble and were arguing amongst themselves and with the ref who finally had enough abuse from their captain and gave him his marching orders for threatening and abusive behaviour.
Breachwood managed to keep their cool knowing they would get one final chance in the dying minutes to win the match. That chance fell to Rees after DJ received the ball from Pagey and chipped a ball over to Ollie Mason after some great movement. Ollie laid a square ball into Rees’ path and he made no mistake finding the back of the net with a cool finish. Pandemonium took over the stand with Fildes running on the field reminiscent of Ferguson and Kidd when they won their first league title with United. Rees’ goal was the final kick off the game with the ref blowing up immediately after the restart. He was instantly surrounded by Outsiders players venting their anger towards him. Unfortunately things started to turn nasty forcing the ref to be escorted off the field of play by the police! Outsiders will surely have an FA charge to deal with now. In his post match interview Fildes admitted he was happy and relieved to get the first win of the season out of the way and dedicated it to the fans.
Blobby was the Managers Man of the Match, making two or three outstanding saves during the game.
Lions travel to league leaders MBDA next week full of confidence.
