Red: Ahmet, Daniel, Kevin, Gerald, Tufan, Chris, Sundy
Yellow: Prit, Alan, Femi, Chris, Larry, Ola, ?
Pinch, punch, first day of the month, white rabbits. 7-a-side! The first head-to-head in a while and Chris took a bow for his debut – introduced by Matt who had the foresight to introduce a newbie while he became father for the first time; congratulations Matt, welcome Chris! We looked to be a man down but Sundy was late so joined us to make it even sides.
Kevin, Gerald, Ahmet made up a solid defensive wall, rotating according to who was in goal while Daniel had a great stint at right back, blocking several shots (a red bruise remains on his upper thigh at the time of writing is proof of his efforts) and he drove forward on the break once or twice, firing narrowly over the far corner when he should have crossed to the unmarked duo of Chris and Tufan who, with Sundy, made a formidable attacking threesome with Ahmet in support, who in turn, seemed to be in the right place to make an inordinate number of defensive interceptions. Our passing, for once, regularly met it’s intended target, satisfying triangles aplenty; Kevin and Gerald typified this by regularly passing calmly out of defence rather than the usual panicky hoof we resort to. Yellow just couldn’t gel and Red went into the break 4-0 up. Stand out moment – Chris almost sliding through the net at the back post in his attempt to get on the end of a cross that was unfortunately blocked before it even got to him.
The second half, Red’s enthusiasm got the better of them and the discipline went out of the window and consequently Yellow finally bundled one in, got another, added a third through an unavoidable ricochet own-goal by Daniel followed by a fourth but Reds attacking flair showed; Tufan was effective on his return after eight weeks out with few goals, Ahmet added a couple with his forays forward and Sundy also got on the score sheet. And Chris, yet to score on his debut went on a mazy run past static defenders and a statuesque keeper but could still only shoot wide – doubly bad as everyone had stopped because the clocked had already beeped. He’ll fit in well.
Final score: Red 8 – 4 Yellow