From Stuart Eales:
Deck the halls with boughs of Holly falla lala la, la la la la.
Tis the season to be jolly fala lala la, la la la la !
Ahh how sweet the victory. How sweet indeed.
It doesn't take much really though does it to raise the Grappenhall spirit. It was only a week or so ago after a whitewash on the Wirral that we were cheering ourselves in the pub despite having lost count during the match immediately preceding said event, of the number of goals we had conceded.
A poorly attended Christmas bash in the meantime, much fun had by all that did make an appearance though, buoyed the boys for today's must win six pointer.
Bexton had a look of Alder about them when they finally turned up. A bunch of oldie miss-fits. A couple of crocks and a couple of barrel smugglers. We made the mistake a few weeks back though of under estimating at our peril our opposition on face value alone. What would today's opponents have up their sleeves to surprise us? Very little as it turned out.
PEM, with a Steve Clarke like confidence, led the battle cry before the off. Were we still with him? Were those sideways glances indicative of lethargy and indifference to come ? They were not. We were up and at 'em. Energised, confident, determined and bold in the face of adversity. Like a South African signer at his moment of need.
For those not present at today's outing I must be careful not to over egg the pudding.
We were sharp out of the starting blocks, we did win plenty of the ball, we did edge them in effort and determination, but lets be honest, they were pretty poor. We scored our goals in the first twenty. The first was from some sublime cookie magic. He shinned a clearance that fell to Razor, razor by name razor by nature, sharp and incisive, he slotted our first with his usual nonchalance.
The second came from some more set up play mastery. Quent I think had some input here, but it fell in the end to our trusty finisher , and those that have known Razor for a while may find this surprising, he swung his left, yes left peg and the ball flew into the net. A brace from Razor and one with his left. The hat trick of miracles was completed later in the match when he laid the ball of for one of his fellow attackers. Yes you heard right, he passed the ball ! Clearly the Christmas spirit has landed early this year in the Locke household and we were all the better for it.
Whilst it is true to say that Bexton in the main failed to trouble us, it would be remiss of me not to point out that we presented very little opportunity to them by way of cock ups at the back. Of late we have had a habit of offering our opponents a few goals head start in our matches. You know exactly what I mean. Those little passing triangles that don't quite work, the miss kicks, the slices, the air shots, the wayward passes all ending in Martin or Geoff fishing the ball out of the net and our already difficult challenge becoming that bit more so.
No, this week we got rid. No nonsense. Hoof it out. Put it out. pass it back and clear. Well sorry for not embracing the merits of tippy tappy football , but it worked for me. A Grappenhall clean slate. Analyse that.
Anyway. The match was pretty grim in the main. Although it wasn't that cold the wind whistled and the ploughed field pitch together conspired to ensure it was anything but a beautiful game. There were some pluses. Junior stamped his mark in the middle, teaming up with Quent. They looked good. I heard someone say in the club afterwards that Leighton had played his best game for us yet. Fair praise indeed. Martin had little to do, but pulled off a tremendous save with 20 to go, clawing the ball out of the top corner. A potential turning point averted. Tony put in a shift up front and of course Richard's penalty will be remembered for his Berbatov suave, curling the ball into the keepers hands. Softest Pen I've ever seen. the Singapore betting syndicate representative stood at the back, nodded and walked off. The first chink in the unflappable ones armour? First and last please.
Three more points on the board and goal difference down to -21. Whoo whoo
So all in all a satisfying afternoons work. And how fitting then the last chorus of the old favourite ....
....sing we joyous all together, falla lala la, la la la la
Heedless of the wind and weather falla lala la, la la la la.
Happy Christmas folks.
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