As I lay here in my budgie smugglers whilst sunning myself on the dalmatian coast with the waves lapping gently on the shore and numerous admiring glances being cast in my direction (well it’s me or the somewhat rotund hausfrau), my mind wanders back to Sunday morning back in blighty.
Red: JP, Daniel, Oz, Jim, Jeremy, Mark
Yellow: Tufan, James, Paul, Gerald, Richard N, Matt
6-a-side!
Red scored with virtually the first attack of the game, the ball ping-ponging between Gerald and Richard before rolling over the line for an own goal. Jeremy doubled the lead shortly afterwards turning in a cross with his knee. Quality from the off. It calmed down a little after that. JP held up the ball on various occasions with teammates contemplating if they’d ever receive a pass, yet with the ball at their feet, he demanded a faster one-touch-and-pass kind of game. James scored shortly before the interlude after defenders Jeremy and Jim were both drawn to the attacking Richard who evaded their attention and threaded the ball to a totally now unmarked James who made no mistake. Jeremy had the audacity to try and blame JP for not having made the save!
Half time: 2-2
Both teams concluded that total football was the answer. It worked better for Yellow with a low cross running to Tufan who feinted a touch, let it roll across him and side-footed in. Paul struck a shot which hit the bar and bounced down but the red defence declared it hadn’t gone over the line so he punished them shortly after. James added the third of the half and they would have romped away with it had Matt not skied his shot and Richard’s attempt hadn’t gone out for a throw. However, JP eventually got a reward for his early morning venture from Winchester and Gerald’s friend Mark, who’s skewed a couple wide finally buried a loose ball. Oz is getting back to the effective distributive self of yesteryear and Daniel popped a surprising number of good crosses into dangerous areas. There was no one there but they were good. Unfortunately for Red, the comeback was not to be.
Final score: Red 4 – 5 Yellow
Man of the match – a subtly but dangerously marauding James who walked away with an almost unnoticed hat-trick! And someone’s annual quotient is looking very healthy.
Now, where has that hausfrau gone? “Cooo-eee! Entschuldigung.”