Red: Patrick, Prit, James, Alan, Chris, ?, ?
Yellow: Richard N, Richard P, Daniel, Kevin, Steve, John, Meddi ↔ Eliseu (half time)
Overcast. Swampy patches.
Well, two who’d confirmed couldn’t come so for the first time since we changed to 10.00am, we opted to play against the Hairdressers who had similar attendance issues this week. They had seven, we had six. So we shouted over to the blond man with the tussled wavy locks to come over and join us. But as he came over, the man morphed into a 15 year-old boy. Oh dear. We took Meddi (sp?) on regardless.
Red certainly had the bit between their teeth and were well organised from the off, their passing being mostly accurate and it wasn’t long before Prit got chance with the loose ball landing just in front of the goal and he poked in. They got a second shortly after, I don’t remember it though.
It took us about 15 minutes to get going, making the most of attacking on the break. Daniel tried to back-heel the loose ball in (and failed – too early for showboating) and Richard Norman struck the bar from the parry. Richard P stepped in to make amends, snapping at a deflected clearance, making a good hard contact ensuring that the ball dribbled over the line despite a defender getting a foot to it. We should have made more of the chances but somehow couldn’t get on the end of Steve’s numerous lovely crosses from the right wing.
They were their usual feisty self and complained about us playing happy families after several fouls were called. And they don’t half nag at each other.
Half time 2-1 to Red.
Meddi, who’d not been daunted by the the age gap (but had expected a bunch of older men to be somewhat less fit that we were!) was subbed at half time as Eliseu had appeared.
He had an immediate impact and became the target man for many passes up the field. Sadly the attacks were thwarted at the last minute, dodgy final pass, block, save etc. But we’d improved a lot and kept possession. Red were the opposite. They could barely put two passes together now and the constant nagging at each other couldn’t have helped morale. I can only recall one shot from them after the break, from a tight angle down the right but Steve got a quick hand out to deflect it just wide.
And then finally with ten minutes to go, Eliseu took possession down the right wing and fired in low at a sharp angle. Nice. Even more so when the one spectator informed us after the game that one of their team fell to his knees and punched the ground in anger. Ha ha ha! It must have felt so much worse when John copied Eliseu and struck in from the right but this time high into the back of the net with three minutes to go. Yellow held out and a particularly succulent victory was theirs!
Final score: Yellow 3 – 2 Red