Real Ale Madrid failed to turn up last night, so Olympique LMB were handed a 10-0 default win, which keeps us 3rd in the table with 2 games to go.
In place of the cancelled game, Boots had to produce a tough performance that deserved more than defeat against Jackson Utd (who are 6th in Division 3). The opposition had a number of lean and physically strong players, and LMB defended soundly for the opening ten minutes with Kieran leading the charge, with Griff mopping up any loose balls that were played back to him. Despite dominating possession, Jackson had very few efforts on goal, and it was LMB who took an unexpected lead when Grith swept home a low shot that dribbled under the keeper. However, the scores were soon levelled when their player was given slightly too much time and beat the diving Griff with a fierce shot.
Jackson had to work extremely hard and finally took the lead in the second half with another low shot, but were denied time and again by some good marking and a number of surprisingly athletic Griff saves. The half flew by without much incident until Sam Stewart beat his man (a Tubby Pete look-a-like) and then called him a weight-based naughty name, which prompted the defending player to grab Sam round the neck for a ridiculously unnecessary head-lock and yellow card. Despite the man advantage, the score became 3-1 when the referee awarded Jackson a penalty when Griff (who had already been warned) slid outside his area, and their striker “cheated by failing to follow the rules of 5-a-side penalty-taking and shoot across his body” (Griff, 2010), hitting his right-footed shot into the bottom right corner. Despite being annoyingly quiet, LMB worked away and began to open up the Jackson defence, before Crozier struck an awesome long-range effort to worry the opposition and make the score 3-2. LMB maybe should’ve at least drawn the game as the ever-eager Man of the Match Sweetman, Grith and Patto all had excellent chances to score but were let down by poor finishing, great saves or cynical hand-balls and heel-clips, while the returning Barnesy managed to hit every post and the bar with an array of efforts!
