Cringleford arrived at Dereham in buoyant mood after an encouraging 4-0 victory in their league opener & enthused by the league debut of record signing Grahame Murty for an undisclosed fee (believed to be steak & chips & a bottle of Peroni). We also welcomed back, keeper Rich Anderson if anything to add a bit of noise to the dressing room, the classy, stylish play of Cringleford Legend George Wilson, & last but not least a rare start for the Mercurial Frenchman Ecky Limon.
The reluctant manager made his usual stirring team talk & those who were listening basically got the message which was to try & not embarrass ourselves in front of Murty. In truth this was a pretty strong line up & with Murts, George & Ben Cava as a central midfield 3 full of style, strength & creativity.
Early signs suggested that whilst there was plenty of space to play on the big pitch at Aldiss park, this game wasn’t necessarily going to be easy. Cringleford had the majority of the game & were keeping the ball really well, spreading the play comfortably whilst conducted both physically & vocally by the experience of Murty. Some excellent crossing as expected from Dan Barnston on the right should have probably led to a goal had Ecky connected a bit better on a couple of occasions on the far post. The deserved opening goal combined both fortune & pantomime. Roger Hickman got into a good position on the left & managed to squirm the ball across the face of goal at the sort of pace that a snail would’ve been disappointed with, Barnston took a wild swing & a miss which turned into the cleverest of dummies, leaving the opportunist Murts to tap home at the far post & score the easiest of debut goals. 0-1 to Cringleford.
Shortly after, Ecky had a headed goal wrongly disallowed for offside, being a modest man he didn’t make a big deal out of it & hardly mentioned it in the Bar afterwards……but did get an apology from both the Lino & The Ref…(Yeah that makes me feel better…..Grrrr)
Second half & the away side began to dominate even more with Merts organizing & pulling the strings in midfield, George Wilson spraying passes around with that silky left foot & Ben Cava always busy running & probing forward. Rudi Hare partnered with the always excellent Mark Dennis at Centre back was having a commanding game, winning everything in the air. He got a richly deserved goal when, from a corner, Roger had a close range effort parried which fell to Rudi who hammered home into the roof of the net. 0-2.
The ever versatile Westy was having as ever a solid game when a nasty looking cut to the head had him straight off to A & E, fortunately our new Romanian/Bulgarian (delete as appropriate) signing Yuli had finally arrived to lend support & a touch of attacking quality as Cringleford pressed for a 3rd. The goal that put this game to bed came after the best move of the match, Ecky picked up the ball up in midfield, slid in George to the left, whose slide rule square ball across the face of the goal delivered with pace & precision left Roger to tap into an empty net. 0-3.
Cringleford were coasting, & this is probably why they ended up frustratingly not keeping a clean sheet. Richie in goal (who afterwards made the valid point that we’d been playing out from the back all game) passed the ball to Mark Dennis on the edge of his own box, Mark clearly either wasn’t ready or didn’t want it, and to emphasise the point, allowed the Dereham striker to loft the ball into an empty net. Annoying but also quite amusing. 1-3 to Cringleford. The away side never in danger though and the result was a good win against a good Dereham side including old friends Andy Henman & Harto.
An encouraging victory & a fine start to what is the most competitive Veterans campaign to date with some big tests ahead. It is already evident what a great addition Grahame Murty is to this team, and with important players to return & rumours growing of some big names on the horizon things are looking good for the Cringleford Vets……….did I mention that my goal WASN’T offside……ffs……
