24/10/10: The Victory Club (0) v (6) The Inn Place
Scorers: None
Team: Swan (GK), Collins (Mountford), Bunyan, Davison (c), Dryden, Harding (Rodgers), Jackson, White (Lamb), Smiles, Robson, Hunter
Unused Subs: Hudson, Stores
Yellows: None
Reds: None
The Victory Club meekly surrendered their place in this season’s Presidents Cup as they were thrashed 6-0 by Division Three leaders, The Inn Place.
The Victory welcomed back captain, Greg Davison while Mark Dryden also returned to the side following his five match suspension. They replaced Alex Rodgers and Graham Lamb in the starting line up. Formation wise it was decided that 4-5-1 was once again to be the order of the day. Positive news for the men in red came in the shape of Nathan Hudson who was named on the bench after overcoming a knee injury.
The game began quietly with both teams matching each other and struggling to create anything in the final third of the field.
In fact it took until the thirteenth minute for the first real effort to be had on goal but the shot from an Inn Place player sailed harmlessly over the Victory crossbar.
The Victory suffered an early setback when with barely a quarter of an hour on the clock, Anthony Collins was forced to limp off with a recurrence of the groin injury he sustained against Grangetown Florists a fortnight ago. Regular right back Simon Mountford, who missed last week’s game through illness, came on in his place.
Then, with twenty one minutes gone, the Inn Place took the lead. There seemed to be little on when an Inn Place player picked the ball up around twenty five yards from goal but he decided to try his luck. His shot took a slight deflection off Stephen Robson en route to goal but should still have been comfortably saved by Victory keeper, Lewis Swan. However, the Victory players could only look on in horror as Swan allowed the tame effort to slip through his grasp and into the net. It was a hammer blow for the Victory who had been right in the game up to that point.
Swan redeemed himself shortly afterwards when he made two saves within the space of a minute both right out of the top draw. Firstly he dived full length to his left to claw away another long range effort. Then, going the other way he made a fine reaction stop to prevent a header from nestling in the back of the Victory net.
The Victory’s most promising attack of the game so far came just after the half hour mark and it almost resulted in a goal. Some clever interplay between, Steve Jackson, James Smiles and Stephen Robson saw Robson set free down the left. He sprinted clear before pulling the ball across the box to Scott Hunter. Hunter hit his right foot shot goal wards but it was superbly blocked by a sliding Inn Place defender. The Victory players closest to the scene all appealed for a penalty but referee George Drennan and his Hitler tash, decided there was nothing doing. Replays later confirmed the Victory players’ suspicions were correct and that the Inn Place defender had indeed used his hand to prevent the ball from going in. They do say when you’re struggling and down near the bottom that things don’t go your way and this incident was certainly a case in point.
Almost immediately, the Inn Place went straight down the other end and doubled their advantage. The Victory failed to pressurise a player on the edge of the box and he took aim and fired an absolute cracker of a shot past a helpless Swan and into the top right hand corner. The Victory had failed to heed their warning from the first goal about allowing their players to shoot from distance although unlike the first goal this one owed absolutely nothing to luck.
The Inn Place continued to press and were enjoying good spells of possession but aside from a couple of headed opportunities which were well off target they failed to test Swan for the rest of the first half. At the other end, the Inn Place keeper was having more difficulty in keeping warm as he was barely called into action.
As the half time whistle sounded the Victory knew that despite being two goals behind they still weren’t out of this game by any means. At the break, David White came off and Graham Lamb came on to take his place as the midfield enforcer. Stephen Robson used the half time break to his advantage, throwing up his tea from last night, but despite the caretaker managers being aware that he was struggling badly through illness they elected to send him back out for the second half.
New arrival Lamb set about making his presence felt right from the whistle as he tried to lead his side back into the contest by making a series of crunching tackles to break up the Inn Place’s passing moves.
Sadly it was ultimately to have little effect as with only six minutes of the second half gone, the Inn Place extended their lead even further. An Inn Place player was allowed to run from just inside his own half right down the middle of the pitch. As he reached the edge of the box he played a clever through ball for a team-mate, who timed his run to perfection and slotted the ball past the oncoming Swan.
The Victory Club were now struggling to get out of their own half and the Inn Place were turning the screw. Observers would have thought that it was they who were playing the extra man in midfield rather than the men in red.
A fourth Inn Place goal duly arrived just after the hour mark but once again Swan will not be happy with his efforts to prevent it. There seemed to be little danger when an Inn Place player picked the ball up on the right wing. However, his right wing cross, aided by the wind, sailed straight over a stranded Swan and into the net. If it wasn’t already before this it was certainly game over now.
It took until the sixty fifth minute for the Victory to manage their first effort on goal of the second half but Hunter’s right foot shot was well wide of the target.
Around five minutes later, the Inn Place made it 5-0 with a goal not to dissimilar to their third. The Victory were initially on the attack through Peter Harding but as his cross was cut out he collapsed in a heap injured. The referee allowed play to continue, despite Harding lying flat out on the ground, and the Inn Place piled forward. Once again a player was allowed to run from deep but as he reached the edge of the box he was confronted by Paul Bunyan. The Victory defender’s tackle was clean but the ball unluckily ricocheted back off the attacker and put him in the clear. Faced with a one on one situation he cleverly waited for Swan to commit himself before lifting it over him and into the net. Before the restart, Harding hobbled off and was replaced by Alex Rodgers – a move which saw the Victory’s most influential player of the match so far, James Smiles shunted out to the right wing.
The tactical move almost paid dividends though as the Victory nearly grabbed a consolation goal with just under quarter of an hour remaining. Some good build up play saw Robson once again set free down the left. As was the case in the first half his pull back found Hunter but this time Hunter, who had spotted Smiles unmarked, coming in from the right, quickly moved the ball onto his colleague. Smiles’ right foot shot was well hit and seemed destined to end up in the top corner but the Inn Place keeper had other ideas and brilliantly diverted the ball over the bar with his fingertips.
With nine minutes remaining, The Inn Place, were correctly awarded a penalty. A back-pedalling Swan was only able to palm a cross onto his own bar but what happened next was farcical to say the least. As the ball dropped down off the bar, Rodgers decided that the best course of action was to punch the ball away with his left hand. Why he chose to do that is anyone’s guess as surely using his head, quite literally, would have been a better option. The referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot and Rodgers, who was also penalised a couple of minutes earlier for handball on the half way line, could count himself very fortunate not to have been sent off. The referee clearly must have left his cards in the boot of his little gaffa taped scooter which was parked outside the changing rooms. From the resulting penalty the shot was slammed home but Mr Drennan order a re-take due to encroaching by an Inn Place player. The re-take was duly dispatched as well to put the Inn Place 6-0 up.
The game petered out in the final stages with the Inn Place obviously deciding that six was enough while the Victory players couldn’t wait for the referee to blow for time, which he duly did a couple of minutes early.
That loss means its five on the spin for a Victory team now lacking in any confidence or form. Next week sees the Victory face Jollies at the Fulwell Mill Arena in a league game six pointer, which could turn out to have a huge bearing on the survival battle at the foot of the Division Two table. However, The Victory will be seriously weakened for that match as a number of their squad are attending the days other big game, the Tyne-Wear Derby at the St James’ Park. Despite this anything other than a win and the three points for the men in red will be considered a big disappointment.
