IF YOU TURNED UP TO WATCH A DECENT SUNDAY MORNING FOOTBALL MATCH YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN DISSAPPOINTED. THIS WAS A 1 MAN SHOW NOT A TEAM EVENT, THE REFEREE STOLE THE SHOW!!
Before kickoff I was warned by the Ref that he was being assessed from a member of the committee from the Met League. Straight away I warned the team that he was going to be picky and make a name for himself. In particular I warned the usual culprit in Stocky to keep his mouth shut, which he just laughed off!! LOL
Without Taxi being around me and Wayne took the team. We had a goal keeper up to the 11th hour before kickoff, until a phone call from Donney explaining that engineering works were going to alter our plans.
We put our heads together and decided to ask Brad to do us a favour between the sticks. To Brad’s credit he jumped at the chance to help the team. We were determined to go against the rule of that if you miss a game, the following week you’re benched. We needed to put our strongest team out, this had to be Barry and Stocky straight back into the centre of the Midfield even though they missed last week. For the 1st time in 4 games we had the luxury of having 13 players to choose from, leaving Bo (Rooney’s brother) and Darren L on the bench to be called upon.
From kickoff we controlled the play. Kav and Darren B down our right were combining very well and were a constant thorn in Palace’s backside. With our left side looking stronger than usual with Wayne behind Phil we looked like we had finally found a decent balance in the 1st 11.
After 2 or 3 great set pieces from Stocky we finally found our opening. A delightful cross picked out Ben T at the back post, he rose highest to head the ball into the bottom left corner. The keeper was left stranded by the accuracy of the header, but credit has to go the ball that was put on to Ben’s head!
1 – 0 up and we were in cruise control. Palace didn’t look like they had anything going forward. Their striker commented to me that he needed our number 8 (Stocky) to feed off, cos some of the passing between Stocky and Barry in the middle was exquisite.
We could and should of made it 2 – 0, it fell to the unlikely candidate of Rhys. Rooney skipped past a defender and rolled in Rhys. Rhys was centre of goal, 5 yards out with the goal at his mercy, but managed to hit row Z. Rhys looked straight at the ground implying some kind of bob-ball but with a big smirk on his face.
1 – 0 at half time the team talk was a light hearted one with Rhys admitting it was a “shocking" miss. Then the topic for the next 5 minutes or so was Rhys’s stance when he hit the ball. Something you would see on ‘Queer As Folk’!!!!!!
The half kicked off with us going straight on the attack. Rooney, Ben and Darren were using their unbelievable skill, pace and knowledge of the game to carve Palace apart. The only thing we were lacking was the finishing touch to get that all important goal.
To our disbelief Palace broke down the left side and scored a controversial equalizer. To be fair they broke from a slack corner from us, but broke very quick. Their strikers linked well and between themselves managed to head past the stranded Bradley. Myself and Wayne were adamant that the striker who crossed the ball was offside, but the flag stayed down.
We didn’t let our chins drop and put more pressure on Palaces backline. After numerous corners the talking point of the game occurred.
The ball broke free from another wasted corned by ourselves. It was a straight forward RACE for the ball between our fastest player Barry and their winger. Their player managed to nick the ball away from Barry, but Barry was at FULL speed and his momentum WIPED HIM OUT!!
A 22 MAN BRAWL OCCURRED…
It must have been a Refs nightmare to have everyone fighting in the middle of the pitch especially when he was being assessed by the league. All I remember is getting in the middle trying to calm everyone down. I was holding the keeper arms down by his sides telling him to walk away when PHIL chinned him, then DARREN came out of nowhere and dragged him to the floor by his MOUTH. I’ve never seen some body’s mouth get pulled open that far as he was going down! Darren did get bit in the process!!
The Ref did his best to restore the peace by separating us and Palace into our own halfs. He decided to dish out our punishments 1st.
First he dealt with Barry. STRAIGHT RED – He explained that it was going to be a yellow for the challenge but his reaction to being grabbed by the throat made it a red.
Second came Stocky. YELLOW – The Ref really didn’t explain exactly what he done but it was just he was in there when it was kicking off.
Third came Rooney. YELLOW - The Ref really didn’t explain exactly what he done, but it was just he was in there when it was kicking off.
Fourth came Bradley. YELLOW – Nobody could believe that he called Brad over to book him. The Ref explained that he saw Brad sprinting the length of the pitch to get involved. I think Brad stood out cos he was wearing a bright yellow keepers top. UNLUCKY BRAD!
IF THERE WAS SOMEWHERE TO HIDE ON A FOOTBALL PITCH PHIL AND DARREN WOULD HAVE BEEN BEHIND IT. THEY BOTH WENT UNCAUSTIONED!!
Then it was time for the Ref to turn his attention to Palace. First was their Keeper, he got a STRAIGHT RED which was well deserved. Then it was the turn of the player Barry wiped out. We didn’t realise by that point that the individual was carrying a YELLOW already, so the Ref showed him his second for his reaction to the challenge. Two other Palace players then got cautioned for their part they played in the incident.
So it was 10 Vs 9 in our favour. We took control as we did when we were level pegging at 11 vs 11.
After some seriously good possession player we created a chance out of nothing. Ben T stepped into the centre of midfield to replace Barry leaving Rooney up top on his own. It was Ben who turned provider from a SLOPPY pass. He had spotted Darren’s run but shanked the ball, Darren put great pressure on the defender and won the ball back. Darren raced clear and finished with great precision into the bottom left corner. DARREN MADE AND FINISHED THE GOAL HIMSELF!! Quality goal!
Then Ref then had time to make another two sending’s off, one from each side. 1st it was a substitute for Palace for swearing and confronting the Ref. Then it was STOCKY, he called the Ref a “cheating c***” for a decision over a corner. Stocky to be fair was in the right, but once you swear at the Ref you deserve to get your marching orders!
When the final whistle came it was like music to our ears.
2 -1 final whistle.
Next week we have a cup game in the FA Intermediate Cup in Tooting against Westminster Wonderers. Let’s hope we have a full squad!!
