Red (4): Jim N, John G, Richard P, Tufan
Yellow (4): Ahmet, Colin, Daniel, Matt
Incredible! Only two confirmed but eight turned up! Eight! 75% of the maybes came through, two no’s changed their mind and an extra one arrived too. What have we learned from this? Something we’ve all known or suspected for a very long time – my weekly email chaser is a big waste of time. However, it was noted that I was brave to believe but fortune favours the brave. Poo-hah to the naysayers. There was a lot of love out there and what a love-in we had. And the cherry on the top was Richard’s moustache. Wow. Also, Happy (recent) 40th Birthday to Jim and Richard.
Opportunities at either end with Red getting the most but whilst Yellow also had a few, the stand out spectacle was the keeping. Jim and Daniel getting a couple of good blocks in but Ahmet had a stormer, pinging everything off with fist, foot, chest and knee including a fantastic stretch back to palm away the ball that looked to have gone past his reach – sterling stuff indeed and he got his knee muddy, you don’t see that often. The deadlock was finally broken with Daniel diving to save the initial shot but whilst sprawled on the ground he was helpless to stop the rising follow-up. However the Yellow reply followed shortly after and they pulled away to 6-2. It could have been even more. A high cross from Daniel to Ahmet was slightly off target and it soared over unsuspecting Tufan in goal and bounced off the top corner of the bar. Matt then received a ball after hard work from Ahmet only to spoon it onto the bar of an open goal. Shocking. Shortly after another similar run by Ahmet he looked up and had time to ask Matt if he would score this time. Matt gave a gallic shrug so Ahmet went the other way and stroked home. The scoreline was flattering and as if to rectify the fact, complancy reared it’s ugly head and Red got a couple to reduce the deficit with John’s accurate passing often causing trouble and then Jim tucked in another ten seconds before half-time, 6-5 to Yellow.
The second half was a similar affair but Red kept Yellow on a tighter leash, never getting for than three away. With numbers low there were several long distance shots over the advancing keeper all of which missed the target. Corners a-plenty but as Tufan rightly stated the conversion rate in general must be very low. This game didn’t help the cause. 0%. Richard P got frustrated with his conversion rate: four shots on target at least. No goals. In fact, it was a two man show this week (and we’re not talking of the bearded Olof Mellberg twosome of Daniel and Colin in defence), no we’re talking Tufan and Ahmet. They must have got 75% of the goals between them.
Final score: Yellow 11 – 8 Red