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The 4s continued their good form since the turn of the year with a convincing 3-0 win over Birkbeck. With the rain pouring all morning and the Meads hierarchy not aware that our game had been changed to a home game, the 4s played on a pitch that had already been played on. The pitch actually played a lot better than it looked and the game was not hindered massively by the conditions.
The result was even better given the mass pull out late in the week and a no show on the day. With only 10 players on Friday night George was given a last minute call to play through the pain up front and he duly obliged. Then on Saturday morning with Jeff unable to play at the last minute Jake used his phone book to great effect, getting Mikey down. Starting the game with 10 men meant Birkbeck started the stronger, with more of the ball and territory. When Mikey was ready he came on to help George out up front and immediately caused them problems. Frans friend Stephen came in alongside Jonathan at centre back and put in a great first performance.
The first chance of the game resulted in Meads taking the lead when a corner from Mikey was headed in off the underside by someone, I cant remember who. Jon tried to claim it but that was put down to his goal hungry nature rather than any realy concrete claim.
Birkbeck responded well and hit the underside of the bar soon after going down. For the next 15 minutes Meads were put under pressure and Birkbeck were opening up the game without really creating a series of clear cut chances. Meads then began to control the game once more with Damo looking to control proceedings from the middle of the park. Some keep ball took the sting out of Birkbeck and they were dealt another blow when one of their players had to go off injured with no sub to replace him. Half time came with Meads 1-0 up and in a good position in the game.
Mikey had found his b***h in the oppositions defence and continued to give him a torrid time in the 2nd half. Their left back, an ageing right footed man who wore a gumshield, was his target. With Matt also playing on the right the left back had no idea what to do and was continually exposed with little cover from his unsympathetic centre back.
Chances were being wasted on a regular basis, with George arguably the biggest culprit. George will argue, in fact he did argue, that the ball was not being played quick enough, everyone else on the team saw George live offside for some reason, perhaps the bald headed goalkeeper took his fancy. He had a goal chalked off for offside and plenty more opportunites failed to materialise due to offsides being given. Mikey also had a goal disallowed for offside when a mistake by the centre back allowed Matt to square the ball for Mikey to put in the empty net, but the ref again blew his whistle.
With the game nearing its end with about 15 to go the chances continued to be wasted. The next culprit was new boy Stephen who burst forward and found himself with the ball in their six yard box, he continued to dilly dally as the keeper went to ground and he eventually sliced the ball wide from an angle with George screaming for a tap in 5 yards to his right. Moments later a match winning save was to be produced by the big man in goal. Jon failed to deal with a ball forward and as Stephen came across to cover him he left the striker completely free in the middle. The ball was squared and everyone saw a narrow lead being erased in front of our eyes with the striker having all the time in the world. However, Jake came out, made himself big and then produced a top save to his left to deny the No10. This was to seal the match as moments later another overload on the right resulted in Mikey in on goal from the right and he delicately lobbed the bouncing ball over the keeper to make it 2-0.
A 3rd came soon after when George mishit a cross but their gumshielded left back misjuded the ball and as Matt turned to get the loose ball he shot first time on the turn, wrongfooting the keeper and the ball rolled slowly into the back of the net. 3-0 and game over.
Another great win for the 4s who continued their fine form in the New Year, its 7 unbeaten now, and if we keep going as we are teams will find it hard to stop us. MOM went to Stephen who stepped in as centre back at the last minute and did a great job, composed and strong in the tackle, he was a worthy addition to the team.
