FC Shepperton arrived at Saturdays match against lowly Burpham in good spirits after the impressive comeback against old rivals Guildford United the previous Saturday. The mood was buoyed further with the imminent Christmas party only hours away.
The lads took to the artificial field talking tactics and individual jobs, should we get on the nose bag pre dogs or post dogs, who was sorting the Jack and Jills, are taxi’s booked and does the physio have any horse tranquilizer? Before anything could be confirmed we were fifteen minutes into the game and no Shepperton player had touched the ball. Burpham, unfortunately not pronounced phonetically, duly took the lead after Shepperton let yet another freekick bounce six yards out and without anyone from either team touching it the ball found the far corner. The half ended with Shepperton on top but without really creating many clear cut opportunities.
At half time Denneh read the riot act, taxi’s were booked and no doubt stimulants and downers would be readily available but we had to switch our minds to the job in hand of winning the game. In the second half Shepperton came out the traps flying, pardon the pun, and were soon level. Some neat football found the ball with the old lad wide right 35 yards from goal who did his best impression of Beckham by producing an arrow like pass to pick out Harry who had moved off the back of the bird playing centre half with a pony tail. Harry duly nodded passed the on rushing Keeper to equalise. Shepperton were now well on top and a second goal came soon after from a long throw which eventually found Burkett 10 yards out and he fired home. With half an hour to go the match took a dramatic turn, much like Ramsey’s decision to take off Charlton in the 1970 World cup eventually led to England’s demise V West Germany Denneh took the decision to give Gascoigne’s old and aching limbs a rest. The decision must have deflated the lads confidence and before long we were 3-2 down. Both goals were avoidable and highlighted how much we rely on the clubs outstanding regular goal keeper, King. Shepperton rallied and found an equalizer through Aaron with 4 minutes to play but let in a shock last minute winner after not dealing with a long throw. This is a steady source of concern as it seems we can’t handle balls into the box. The lads left the pitch dejected and more depressed than Leighton on a Wednesday after Saturday night at Egg.
In true FC Shepperton style we put the result behind us to enjoy an Xmas party Shin Dig in Wimbledon. Thankfully Sam was more organised than our back four and the night was a great success. James popped his cherry enjoying his first night out and I only hope he doesn’t look up to some of the degenerates on show as role models.
Onwards and upwards
