NVA were rocked by controversy yesterday as it appears a unknown member of the team has been involved in match fixing allegations against Indies Celtic who ran away with a 3-0 victory.
After several weeks of positive performances, NVA were strangely below par. At first the foggy and cold conditions seemed to be the reason as well as the late arrivals of 2 key players before and after kick off. Once the game settled down NVA held off the attacks set up by Celtic but didn't offer much going forward with an inability to string a few passes together nor a shot on target. Possession proved to be most elusive and soon after NVA's shape was tested as Celtic piled on the pressure with constant movement from their midfield and strikers. However, the effort from the 11 NVA players couldn't be faulted as Celtic kept knocking on the door. Eventually the team in claret and yellow got their breakthrough from a corner sent to the back post which after some hesitation from NVA proved to be an early Xmas gift to Celtic.
Celtic didn't take the pressure off and kept looking for further spoils. It came towards the end of the first half with a speculative through ball behind NVAs lines. It seemed the keeper was destined to come out and clear away the danger but a moment of hesitancy led to the striker stealing the ball away and slotting into the back of the net.
With several changes in players positions, NVA finally began to offer more in attack against the Celtic defence in the second half. This soon gave way to an open game with both teams trading attack for attack. NVA piled on pressure from set pieces and trying to get in behind Celtic but the door remained firmly shut. Celtic were worth their lead after covering every inch of the pitch in defending and attacking. This lead to their third goal, as the number 9 chased a pass back to the NVA keeper, whose miscontrolled first touch allowed the striker to steal the ball away. The man in the keepers jersey scrambled to retrieve the ball only to bring the striker down for a penalty. However, there was a twist in the tale as as the keeper turned from zero to hero and saved the fiercely hit penalty that was low and hard to his left. The ball remained in play and was retrieved by Celtic's right winger who crossed the ball back in only for the panic to hit the NVA defence. The penalty saving keeper pushed the crossed ball away from his goal but into the path of the penalty taker who slotted the ball past the keeper.
NVA of old would have capitulated at this stage and let in another 4 goals & a selfish individual attitude would have set in. However, the recent successes have given a steel to this team who kept peresevering in defence and attack and maintained a team ethos to the end. This was exemplified by NVAs man of the match Mike Sheppard who put in a strong and stable shift, containing Celtic's overlapping attacks on his wing. Also a special thanks to all the 11 players for committing to this game during work-Xmas-party season as well as Nikesh for playing through his flu and Rickin for ditching his own 5-a-side team to come and play for us.
The result wasn't the best end to the year, but with squad players returning from injury in early 2014, NVA can expect to see a continuation of recent results which have been based on a team mentality and not individual glory. Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to everyone. Please look out for the email for first game back after the Xmas break.
******BREAKING NEWS******
Late last night the footballing authorities contacted the NVA management team to highlight a match fixing allegation against one of its players in the loss to Indies Celtic. NVA have released the following statement:
‘It has come to our attention that a member of our team (player X) has been involved in serious match fixing allegations. On the 11th December 2013, an unknown source offered player X £70 to ensure NVA loses the game. It is obvious that player X took the sum of money and an investigation will commence immediately. If you have any information regarding these allegations and unmaksing this person, please contact the Chairman of the club, Rajesh Shah’
