Red (5): Richard P, Kevin, Richard N, Oz, Ed
Yellow (4): Jim N, Gerald, Ahmet, Daniel
Wow. That was a humdinging broo-haha.
Fast and furious start which carried on through the whole game. Yellow started ever so slightly brighter with some lovely passing, movement & open play but red weren’t far off the pace and slotted in the first two goals. Daniel then rectified the imbalance after initially being frustrated in front of goal. Inspired by Spurs whooping Arsenal’s butt the day before, wanting to avenge Denmark’s missed penalty resulting in a goalless draw with the Czech Republic midweek and wanting to beat his personal best of 46 goals in a season and maybe even reach 50 (how many reasons do you need?), he morphed into Brian Laudrup using hitherto unforeseen dribbling and shooting skills and popped in a hatrick and with another goal going in from someone else (Jim maybe, sorry – can’t quite recall) they were suddenly up 4-2. Red looked shellshocked but didn’t give up and replied before the break to reduce the difference to one.
Jim valiantly played in goal for a significant part of the game after suffering a calf strain mid-way through the first half. He kept yellow in the game with some sterling work between the posts, the highlight being a lightening reflex to palm away a bullet from Oz. Not to be outdone, Norman in goal at the other end was sent the wrong way with a feint but managed to turn the shot round the post with his trailing arm. Magnificent stuff. Ed and Gerald had a wonderful game-long duel down the wing, honours even at the whistle I would say.
The second half started with red popping in a couple, Kevin putting in one with schadenfreudic glee but then pinged in an own goal which wiped the grin from his face. A quiet period in the middle with Piper as the defensive stalwart for Red was interrupted by his team suddenly pumping in three in quick succession and yellow begun to hang their heads, 6-9 down. Yellow tactic – put Ahmet in goal for the last five minutes and use the well-known striking threesome of Daniel, Gerald and Jim! It worked – Ahmet got a three minute goalkeeper hatrick! Daniel’s personal tally stuck on 49…….the winner would have been sooooo sweet.
It was a great open game with some fantastic through balls, passing, movement, blocks, shots, goals, saves. I’m sorry if I’ve missed off stuff, I can’t recall all that deserves a mention. If you weren’t there, you missed out.
Final score: 9-9.
Jeremy, JP – you too-embarrassed-and-ashamed-to-even-show-your-faces losing Arsenal bums – Where were ya?! Where were ya?!