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| Unfortunately, I shan't be able to furnish details
of any post-match festivities, since I wasn't there. |
| Slated for a 6pm kick-off, the match
began with an extended warm-up period somewhat reminiscent of
school lunch-times; "shall we start?" "hang on,
let's just pass and shoot a bit longer." In Dennis,
the Reds possessed a 'keeper to fit this analogy. Officiating
the match was manager Al; his appearance drawing comparisons to
the Italian great, Collina (somewhat inevitably, as Al had previously
stated that he is subjected to such witticisms at virtually every
game). |
From what I can recall, the teams
lined up with the following personnel:
Reds: Dennis, Rosie's Paul, Mark, Marrsy, Paul T, Ricardo, Rosie's
Tony,
Sean, Paul F, Steven, Ben sub: Daniel
Whites: Rob, Dr. Mark, Rosie's Brian, Rob S, Joe, Pete,
James, Rich, Paul
C, Tom |
| Al's pre-match attempts to impose
some kind of predefined formation crumbled as both teams huddled
together prior to kick off and assigned positions. The match kicked
off with a period of Reds pressure, during which time match reporter
Brown was felled from behind by Pete just as he was about to fail
to open his Albion account; even before the referee had blown
to confirm the penalty, Mark was striding forward from the back;
there was only ever going to be one taker. After a brief moment
of consternation involving the rather iffy penalty spot, Mark
stepped up confidently to dispatch the penalty... just past the
right hand upright. |
| This signalled the start of a spell
of pressure from the Whites, during which time Tom proved James
quite prescient in the video clip he had forwarded a few weeks
earlier, sending the ball over from 10 yards after an unfortunate
bounce. Shortly after this, the Whites opened the scoring with
a well-struck free kick from James which just evaded Marrsy's
attempt to clear it on the line. |
| Up front for the Reds, Steve was
holding the ball up well, and making powerful runs that belied
his tender years; on the whole, however, defences were on top
in this game. The half was progressing without much further incident,
until what seemed like disaster struck for the Reds, and on a
personal level, for your match reporter, as Rosie's Paul had to
come off; having replaced myself with Daniel as part of the three-striker
rotation policy, I found myself thrust into action as a left-back,
despite a despairing cry of, 'But I really can't play here!' |
The change brought immediate dividends
however, although the credit for this must rest solely with Ricardo,
whose South American heritage became evident- controlling the
ball with a Maradone-esque movement of the hand, before
lobbing Rob, Brazilian-style, from fully 40 yards. So, at
half-time, the score was a fair 1-1. |
| The second half began with Paul
T and Marrsy swapping around at the back for the Reds, the unenviable
task of the right back seemingly to be 'roasted' throughout (their
word, not mine) by the energetic Joe. I'm afraid that I don't
really remember very much of the second half- not even each team's
second goals. I'll put this down to the fact that I received a
Paul C cross in the face; to paraphrase an earlier match report:
'f*ck me that c*nt can hit a fu*king ball - the c*nt certainly
stays fu*king hit.' I do recall, however, that the eventual winning
goal- from the Whites- came following a moment of chaos in an
otherwise composed Reds defence; James heading in at the far post. |
The Reds pressed for an equaliser
and were unlucky not to find one, as
Rosie's Daniel slalomed through the Whites back-line, only to
see his shot
creep agonisingly wide. |
| A loss was perhaps slightly
harsh on the Reds, as the match was fairly even throughout,
although Dennis was probably the busiest of the two 'keepers. |
| Man of the match? Sean, for his tireless work
in midfield. |
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