As the time reached 10.28am, and for the second time in 2 weeks, every player present knew he was starting because there were only 11 of them there, and for the second time in 2 weeks this was to have negative connotations on The Panthers performance.
As the dishevelled 11 gathered in a circle immediately prior to kick off there was no sense of passion in the air, no presence of desire or determination, and the stench of stale alcohol was abundantly present to all. If this stench was not evidence enough of a heavy Saturday evening then what was about to follow over the next 90 minutes or so would prove fundamentally damning.
The game started with Riverside Rovers constantly having success from through balls between full back and centre back and the youthful pace of their side was to have The Panthers stretched throughout. They persistently broke at pace and with numbers and the Parkway’s failure to match their speed was only matched by their failure to match their desire or determination to succeed.
Riccardo Savoriti turned up just as the game was kicking off and was quietly hoping to have a kip on the sideline; however Kieran McCaffrey was much keener on catching some shut eye and suitably faked an early groin injury. Surprisingly he chose not to go for the Dave Trattles “I’m injured and need to play upfront approach”.
Parkway took an unexpected lead after a debatable goal line clearance off an Anthony Thompson shot was undoubtedly driven home by David Trattles, courtesy of a somewhat fortunate deflection. Riverside however rallied and went on to score twice in quick succession. They would have deservedly taken a half time lead but for a poor goal kick which allowed Derek Bradley to feed Ritchie Walker who calmly beat the keeper to make it 2-2.
Heated exchanges were made between the Panthers during the interval and Parkway set out for the second half clear of what was expected of each and every one of them. Unfortunately none of them paid any attention. Bull still kept diving in, Geoff still kept getting caught wrong sided, Rick was slowly starting to wake up, Stuey and in particular Swenna provided minimal support to the full backs. Coyley and Damo had both clearly returned from long spells out injured (their touches in the middle of the park resembled a pinball machine) and Ritchy Walker just simply tossed it off up front constantly in Decka’s ear telling him how much he loved him, how good he was and how he will never go back to the club without Derek on his arm.
Rovers deservedly took a lead early in the second half and the Parkway somehow managed to Dick Turpin a point out of the game in the last few minutes after a Coyley pass was completely missed by Walker thus allowing Dez to slot home.
Dez somehow managed to steal the man of the match award from an uncharacteristically dominant Dave Trattles, who may have looked better than he actually was due to the performances of those around him. I never thought I’d say it but I actually agreed with Dave when he said, “Argh tink we missed nower Carl lyke”.
