What a way to finish a season, 3-0 up inside half an hour and finish with 5 on the day, although the 2 to Old Salvatorians was probably deserved. The day did not start so well with the ref turning up at 3:30 for a 3pm KO, we were resigned to having no ref at all and started the game. After a couple minutes though we could see a black kit trudging his way over to us and we at least had a ref for the last game.
The game started badly when Dave had to go off after about 3 minutes and then Foz had to go off about 5 minutes later, 2 subs used inside 10 minutes. Old Salvo's started the game better with the runners from midifeld causing problems, Sam was not a happy man in these stages, constantly berating the midfielders for a lack of defensive cover, he was probably right. Despite the early troubles there seemed to be a lot of space and the simplest of movements was dragging their players all over the place. Not too long in Kev played the ball into Matt who had time to turn and hit the ball over the top to George who had found a chasm between the 2 centre backs. George knocked the ball over the top of the approaching keeper and stroked the ball into the empty net, 1-0.
Meads began to find their feet with some nice play in the middle of the park. Ash and Charlie were also causing problems for their full backs and we looked a threat going forward. George was dealing very well with their big centre backs and despite being outnumbered he was certainly giving them headaches. His endeavour was to be rewarded when Matt hassled the central midfield in their half and gained possession, George made himself some space and recieved the pass. Goerge cut inside the defender and curled the ball over the keeper into the corner with a nice finish, 2-0. We had already had a couple of chances both created by Ash when he set George away; the first was hit a bit high as George shot from the edge of the box having cut in and the second was saved well by the keeper. Ash's shouts to George to square the ball fell on deaf ears, George was in the mood for goals.
With Meads becoming increasingly confident some of the football was great given the hard and bobbly pitches. A 3rd was to come in the first half when a quick corner on the right from Matt and Charlie resulted in a front post corner heading towards George, his volleyed effort was a great way to seal a hattrick on the last day of the season.
As usual at the back Jonathan and Sam were proving resolute with the aerial bombardment that Old Salvos used often being met with disdain by Jonathan's head. Half time and Meads were 3-0 to the good and seemed to have sealed a victory for the last game.
The 2nd half started slowly, Meads let their foot off the gas and Old Salvos seemed deflated by what was a harsh scoreline at halftime. The game began to really open up as people tired and Salvos pushed men forward in the hope of getting back into the game. When they did get near the goal they either missed the target or found Jake in no mood to let slip a clean sheet. Unfortunately after a corner wasn't cleared properly a volleyed return was turned in 4 yards out. This was after a 4th for Meads though as George's shot was saved by the keeper only for the rebound to fly into the defenders legs and into the goal. So 4-1 with about 30 minutes still to play. There was still time for more goals and the thousands of spectators that flooded to Riverside Lands to watch the last game were not to be disappointed. First a corner was again not fully cleared and thier central midfielder hit the bouncing ball into the goal from the edge of the box. Then, after a long and mazy run, Ollie was felled in the area and Charlie stepped up and cooly dispatched the penalty. The game finished 5-2, a good fun game to finish off the season. George was named MOM for his last day hattrick, a good send off before he goes travelling to Africa.
As the curtain comes down on another season I suppose it is time to say thank you to some people. Thanks to everyone that came down and played this season, it has been a fun season and we also finished the season with some silverware in the shape of the cup, which was a great achievement. This season has also been made a lot easier by the relative consistency in selection. Eventhough we have used more than 30 players this season Roger and Tim never took 3/4 players at once, which has meant the team was never been desomated and we must thank them for that as we all had selection problems at one stage or another during the season. Now we can look forward to a good day on the 15th and then the long wait for the season to begin once more...
