Yellow (7): Colin, Ahmet, Ed, JP, Damon, Steve, Richard N
Red (7): Jeremy, Kevin, Daniel, Darren, Gerald, James Paul
Hot, muggy, firm and mown grass.
Welcome back Damon. He joined us slightly late (through no fault of his own) which upset Yellow who became quite vocal about the one man disadvantage, even though it was clearly explained that he would shortly join them. Red ignored the disproportinoate protestations and scored, Daniel shooting off target but Darren on hand to alter the course of the ball into the net. And then Damon joined us. Just as Paul scuffed a shot, jarred his knee and had to exercise caution and take himself off after only 5 minutes. The one man disadvantage was now the other way round. Yellow were ungracious in the change of fortunes by suddenly staying very quiet about the numerical difference. Red didn’t moan at all. It was a tough game, both teams passing and moving well, defences doing their job but a few good shots going off. Colin then passed down the middle for Damon to get the slighest of touches to dink the ball past Daniel, a goal on his return. They got another soon after and then just before half time added a third.
The second half was just as good quality wise with both defences really limiting the chances. James ran and ran and ran, pinging off passes to whoever was supporting the attacks. Darren dived to tip a shot around the post. JP significantly increased his dragback per game average and the only shot he managed went out for a throw whilst Steve lost his voice shouting for the ball. Gerald took out Damon with challenge but the free kick came to nothing. Amongst all this, Daniel laid off to Darren who fired in first time. This upped the already hard tempo for the last 20 minutes as Yellow didn’t want to loose the advantage and Red wanted to win. But although both teams fought hard to the end there was no more spoils to be had.
Final score: Yellow 3 – 2 Red
Stat man Dan says:
1: Half way through the season. Of the 25 games so far (+ one cancelled), 12 have ended with only a one goal difference. The total for the previous three years is 24. Good team selections!
2: Damon’s last game was on July 12th, 2009. Exactly two years to the weekend.
3: I’m not going to publish half way stats as I don’t want to influence your performances. There are some shocking (good and bad) stats in there though. Attendence is at an all time high (average 12 per game) so I think I speak on behalf of all of you – thank you for the love.