Last minute match arranged less than 24 hours before turned out to be a success for the Gabbas lads, worrying about numbers the gaffa rung round some old fan favourites to help them out, to find out on the day 16 fully fit players were available for selection for the Wednesday night friendly (not so friendly) away fixture against a lower division 7 team Moreton Arms.
The squad included the likes of experienced players such as Luke 'Pevo' Steventon (back from injury) Luke 'Chopper' Abbley and Adam 'stck a pony in me pocket, i'll fetch the suitcase from the van, cause if you want the best 'uns and you don't ask questions, then brother i', your man' powers. Selection headaches for the gaffa but never the less Gabbas lined up with a strong starting 11 -
Bowater - GK
Sherwood - LB
Schofield - RB
Abbley - CB
Hall (c) - CB
Mcinerney - LM
Ludbrook - RM
Kelly - CM
Mason - CM
Steventon - CF
Gibbons - CF
Leaving a strong subs bench with Spalding finally putting his boots on, Alex Jones finally turning up, Watson finally sober and Elwell Finally back from work.
Looking at the warm up the Moreton Arms lads didn't look too bad.......then we kicked off.
Within the first minute a scramble on the edge of the box bounced clear for Mcinerney who ran clear and slotted the ball past the slightly overweight keeper (no not an own goal, they had a large keeper too) 1-0 gabbas.
The Moreton Arms lads kicked off again and Gabbas quickly took control again launching another attack to which they could only be stopped by a foul 35-40 yds away from goal, step up Ricky Kelly who like Deja Vu netted in the bottom corner of the opposition goal to make it 2 in 2 minutes for Gabbas. 2-0 gabbas.
2-0 up and it looked like it was going to be a mauling, Matt Hall and Abbley mopping up every ball through at them at the back, with the only danger being the long ball knocked i behind them, but the hosts couldn't get it right. Gabbas lads looked a little worried as on 8 minutes a back pass by Schofield didn't have the legs to reach Bowater and the Moreton Arms left winger snuck in to knck it round Bowater but couldn't hit a barn door in those goggles he was wearing!
Once again the run of play resumed as normal with gabbas on the attack again, a lovely flicked ball over the top from Pevo found Ludbrook who looked like he was going to break his duck and score for Gabbas as he bought it down and nodded over the keeper only to be cleared off the line by the Moreton Arms defender. This was only a short break in pressure though as Joe again found by Pevo rattled home to make it 3-0 to Gabbas and put them firmly in the driving seat.
From then on the gabbas lads seamed to quieten down and take their foot off the gas as their opponents never looked like causing them any danger, intricate passing between the middle 2 as per resulted in some late and dangerous challenges being put in by the Moreton lads, through pure lack of talent rather than and maliciousness. Our hot headed King didn't take kindly and soon got back up and chokeslammed the shit out the lad...as per Sherz had to step in and calm down the situation...(fuck me he's hard)
On that note the Ref blew for half time.
The gaffa made a couple of changes, Abbley had put in a cracker at the back but came off for a rest, Alex Jones went centre half, Spud came on a right back, Jack at Left back, Joe had a rest and Pow gave us some fresh legs on the right wing.
The second half began how the first half finished, Gabbas in control but still with their foot off the peddle, never the less still created a few chances to increase the scoreline, Watson after being pushed into left wing giving Mason a rest and putting Gezza in the middle struck from what looked like to far for him to reach against the cross bar, this filled him with confidence and couldn't help but finesse every chance he had from that position coming close a couple of times.
Although Gabbas were in control, the Moreton Arms managed to grab a corner where there centre mid rised above all Gabbas lads with no challenge to header a sweet header into the corner of the net. 3-1 Gabbas.
After about 3/4 of a game spud on his debut looked like he had enough, so Schofield was bought back on to resume his usal position at right back, Pevo also on his first game back was given a rest to bring on Elwell in the holding role (couldn't hold his cock never mind the middle of the park). Ludbrook was given his usual role up front with Gibbo dropping to right wing in place of Pow. The pace up front and energetic runs by Ludbrook made the only few remaining chances of the game when the ball was played into his feet for him to kncok around the defence and run for a clear shot at goal only to miss the target by inches and not increas his goal tally.
Elwell had a few piss poor efforts and that's his lot for the season.
Overall a decent performance on a big pitch, in repsonse to the critics as to why 3 men weren't put in the middle earlier......we managed with 2 against a premier side DCA...why can't we manage with a piss poor division 7 team? Granted it was a big pitch but I think the answer was work rate not tactics.
Good game lads. Rest up unitl training next Wednesday...One team in Darlo
And finally....comments from one of the big times from last weeks game 'it should of been 7-2 to us, 4 of your goals was shit and wouldn't of happened if we had Moz in goal'
My reply as Gaffa....2 goals from penalties, 3 goals from George..apart from that what the fuck you got!
We are Gabbas we do what we want! One team in Darlo...the times are changing and there ain't no room for big times in Darlo!
