Reds: Gareth, Damon, and all the good ones, Scott (2nd half)
1. Tufan met Gerald met Keith met Colin.
1.1 All of 1. above met Steve.
1.2 Gerald’s suggestion of 3 versus 3 was not well met. For there were only five of Us
2. All of 1.1 above saw The Others.
2.1 It was with a sense of foreboding that they walked, shoulder to shoulder, across Peckham’s finest green, towards The Others.
2.2 The Others struggled to assemble their goals and nets like Laocoon and his Sons.
2.3 We helped. And for this we rewarded with three of The Others’ own.
3. The game started. We were green. (Yellow to some.)
3.1 Steve knew the sides were balanced in The Others’ favour. For Gareth had returned. And he was theirs.
3.1.1 Steve did not say anything about this until the end. When it was All Over.
3.2 Sundi arrived late, in Green (Yellow to some). But he was not allowed across the threshold, for the sides were even (although, as Steve later observed, not balanced).
3.3 It was 0-0. The pace was fast. Our inspiration was Sterling and Sturridge, Baines and Barkley.
3.4 It was 1-0 to Reds. Then 1-1, a wonderful Bergkamp goal from Tufan.
3.5 It was now 4-1 to Reds. Left unsaid was why… some thought it was because Gerald was now in goal. Gerald thought it was because he was the only f*cking defender and, yes, he was now in goal.
4. Femi had a sense of humour failure.
4.1 This sense of humour failure lasted the rest of the half. And the whole of the second half.
5. Half-time. 5-1 to Reds. Scott and Femi (both “defenders”) switched to the noble, Knightly, position of attack. The peasants could be left to defend.
5.1 Sundi joined Yellows. Our time had come. Keith and Colin pressed and harried. Steve spread balls across the pitch like thin marmite. Tufan dodged and darted like a border collie herding footballs.
5.1 6-1 reds, 6-2 yellows. This was the come-back. But ?? was injured and retired to goal to limp for the final 35 minutes.
5.2 Another injury, this time a Red, and Scott switched to their side. They asked ‘who wants to join Reds… it can be anyone but Femi’. This did not help the delicate threads that pull a team together towards a common goal. And so the threads unravelled.
6. We draw a curtain over the rest of the half, and return to find our noble band of five reflecting on an England defeat and now this. The Others simply don’t have fun when they play. And we miss that, we really do. Gerald’s suggestion of 3 vs 2 now looked like a prelapsarian dream.
6.1 Steve pointed out that he knew the sides had not been balanced at the start.