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| My have we improved in recent
weeks. It doesn’t seem five minutes ago that Camden School,
sorry, Lions beat us 3-1 in some cup or other. And, would you
believe it, our cup opponents premier league veterans Tufnell
scored after two or so minutes (don’t ask me, I was taking
a swig from Marcus’ whisky bottle at the time) but there
wasn’t a single head that went down. |
| The first half was truly enjoyable
from a spectating point of view. Football was the winner etc.
Two quality teams vying for the ball, boy did we raise our game.
The Albion equalised after fifteen minutes, a good move down the
left side culminated in Monkey Hanging Pete’s holding up
the ball before setting Rich up for a quality finish. The other
team had their moments but we were spraying the ball all over
the park; from a managerial point of view it was delightful to
see how often we passed backwards when under pressure and then
built from that position. And another good thing was the way James
consistently dropped into midfield and looked for the ball, that
allowed the midfield to drop and help out the defence when necessary.
His hard work was paid off when he made and scored a goal shortly
before half time. |
| After half time the premier
league team showed their rattledness and started to try and kick
a couple of our players over. To no avail mind you, our tempers
were kept. Suffice to say the defence were well f*cking solid,
the team kept their shape well ( with consequent midfield cover)
and going forward Tom in particular didn’t give up on a
single ball. If only Dennis’ long range effort had provided
the icing on the cake. |
| Obviously I’m well pleased
with the result, we really played like a team, it was heartening
to hear the amount of “man ons” tonight for one thing.
There have been a few new players join us recently (and well done
Stuart on his debut tonight, left back’s not the easiest
position when you’re right footed after all) so it was only
to be expected that the team would take a while to find each other.
There’s no reason why we can’t continue with this,
we’ve enough quality players for there to be competition
for places (I can think of at least five absentees who would have
contended for a place in tonight’s starting line up). |
| Man of the match is James,
energy, communication and also quality passes (which means that
there were plenty of quality runs by the way!) Which sums up our
performance, team spirit personified. |
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It seems harsh to finish having only mentioned
a couple of names; starting at the back Giles made some vital
saves while Steve and Dom were their usual rock like selves,
Dom wins this week’s “most slide tackles”
prize. Jon and Will in particular showed the difference between
this season and last in that both got forward well whilst possessing
the fitness to get back too. Midfield-wise Dan bossed the game,
Joss got stuck in as his replacement while Rich covered a ridiculous
amount of ground. Both Petes worked well on the wings (defensively
too!) while our Guardian strike force put in bags of effort.
Hats off also to Mark, Sean, Marcus and Sinead for cheering
us on throughout the game.
Oh, and did I mention that Tufnell are in the
premier league? |
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Albion Team (4-4-2 r-l): Giles;
Jon, Dom, Steve F, Will (Stuart 60; Irish Pete, Dan, Rich, Dennis
(70); James, Tom (Joss 65) |
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