Match reports

Red (5): Oz, Gerald, Ed, Colin, James C
Yellow (4): Ahmet, Jim N, Matt, Daniel

Blustery. A drop or two of rain cleared upon the whistle so we basked in the blinding sun for 80 minutes – No real clear attempts in the opening period but that was finally broken in the 14th minute by Jim going on a solo run down the left and firing in. Red replied soon after. I say replied – Matt should get a job in the John Lewis gift department for Christmas such was his presentation to Red with an attempted goal kick up the middle that failed to make the intended recipient. It was intercepted, unwrapped and delivered back from whence it came. Then the beginning of the controversy. A handball in the Red area? The discussion went on for a while but the game continued. Then Jim N blatantly handled on the edge of the area at the other end. Free kick given which Colin took with a tricksy move which didn’t quite pay off. At some point around here Jim’s knee accidently met with James C’s lip. Not a pleasant welcome back for a man whose been away for months due to cricket commitments and six weddings! I feel your pain. Standing around a field waiting for nothing to happen must be dull. Bud-dum, tsch! Thankyouverymuch.
Just before halftime, Yellow popped in another to go 2-1 up. At the same point last week with the same number of people on the pitch, 17 goals had been scored.
Red kicked off the second half. Nothing much sticks in my mind other than another questionable handball in the Red area. This time the penalty was given although Ed argued that the advantage had been palyed on. For the wrong team, nice try though. Ahmet calmly fired low into the corner to put daylight between the scores. Then a dangerous ball from Matt was fired diagonally into the danger area and with two Yellows rushing on Oz could only divert into his own net and Yellow looked to be running away with victory, the game standing at 5-2 with five minutes to go. But two quick goals (including an exact copy of Oz’s own goal, this time at the other end – Daniel diverting James’ through ball into his own net with Colin on his shoulder) left the game in the balance. But with only 20 seconds on the clock Matt managed to keep possession to let the seconds tick by before passing back to Ahmet who hoofed it up the pitch as the clock signalled the end. Some tasty goalkeeping in there too – Ed with a quick double save against Daniel, Gerald took one in the chest and Jim with a lightening reaction to push over Oz’s effort.

Final score: Red 4 – 5 Yellow

Yellow (5): Ahmet, Jim N, Liam, Gerald, Ed
Red (4): JP, Colin, John G, Daniel

Apologies for the delay, if my memory serves me well, here’s a pitifully small recollection of events….

Very foggy. The first four to turn up were Colin (welcome back), Gerald, JP and Daniel, four particularly hirsute men. It looked like a teddy bear rendezvous. Thankfully Oz and Jim N appeared through the fog and attention was diverted to the game and three more then appeared through the murk to make it a reaonable sized affair. Jim and Daniel took forever to pick teams. And then the pitch was too small. But we didn’t didn’t change it and a lot of people ran out of space.

Red got up to 5-1 within the first 10 minutes. Yellow stopped the rot and got in front just in time for the break, 9-8 up.The fog lifted in the second half and Red suddenly saw they had the extra man. They used him well and pulled away to a handsome victory.

Highlights included:

JP being given space on the left and putting in a lovely right foot curler into the far top corner.

A well-timed slide from Daniel to block a goal bound shot from Liam. Sadly the ball hit his hand (protecting the beard!) – penalty! John saved the initial shot but Liam tucked in the easy rebound.

A loud foghorn.

The highest combined tally in a single game for the year so far: 29 goals

Crumbs for the losers, Cake for the victors and strange plumes of steam evaporating from each player at the the whistle, like a personal will-o’-the-wisp. And as we trudged off the gloom closed in again,

Final score: Red 12 – 17 Yellow

Yellow: Richard P, John G, Richard N, Tufan, Liam, Fabio, JP
Red: Oz, Jim N, Ahmet, James, Daniel, Ed

13 – great turn out, thank you for the love and for introducing the new blood.
Yellow 6-0 up at the break. A mixture of attacking power and luck. Whilst not always scoring at the first attempt, they had the numbers to mop up the loose ball or take advantage of any deflections or errors.  And they were reasonably solid at the back too. It wasn’t that one sided but although Red had plenty of chances, they couldn’t make any count. Conclusion – Red are obviously more red-blooded and virile men as they were much more distracted by the lesbian love trist in the leafy mud under the tree.
In the second half Red buckled down and it paid off! 6-3 within 10 minutes. (JP in Yellow defence or the girl-on-girl action having departed at half-time – you decide). But the belief was there. A couple more goals made it 7-4 but then complacency/calamity reered it’s ugly head with a couple of mistakes at the back. Yellow made them pay for the errors and suddenly looked in control again after worry had begun to creep into their game. Ahmet then made another mazy run as keeper and was dispossessed. JP shot at the empty goal but Daniel just managed to stretch and get a stud to divert the goal-bound ball away from target. Huzzah – no double figures here! Er, not quite actually. Tufan fired in 5 minutes before the end, a hatrick at least I proffer. Honours even for the half but the damage had already been done. And what of the newbies? Liam, a constant receiver and supplier of tasty balls down the right. Fabio, a constant midfield thorn niggling whenever Red had possession. Both ones to watch.

Final score:  Yellow 10 – 4 Red

Game 1:
Red: Gerald, Richard P, Richard N, James
Yellow: JP, Daniel, Tufan, Oz

Final score: Yellow 5 – 4 Red

We stopped and changed at half time as John G arrived late which Daniel had forgotten he had been notified about. Apologies – my fault. But what have we learned from this? Don’t text Daniel while he’s pissed on a Saturday night

Game 2:
Red: Richard N, Richard P, Gerald, John G, Oz
Yellow: James, JP, Tufan, Daniel

Final score: Yellow 4 – 7 Red

I think those are the correct teams. James lost both. Oz won both. Richard P tried to score, oh how he tried but I can’t recall if he actually did. I did though. For the first time in seven games. Twice. Including a tap in on the goal line and I was nervous about missing that. Can’t recall much else other than a couple of amusing goal mouth scrambles with defenders and keepers fluking clearances, a JP own goal with Richard N bearing down to make sure. Red looked to have won it at 4-3 in the first game but a resolute Yellow poked in towards the end to ensure victory. And despite Yellow almost clawing it back in the second game, a three goal flurry in the last five minutes ensured the Red victory. How to decide who won and who lost over the whole morning? Goal difference over the two games of course. Negative = loser, positive = winner.

Tufan -2
JP -2
James -4
Daniel -2
John G +3
Richard P +2
Richard N +2
Oz +4
Gerald +2

Yellow (4): Ahmet, Jeremy, Jim N, Richard P
Red (5): JP, Matt, Tufan, Oz, Daniel

Not as soggy as the rain should have made it. Red started with the extra man. They didn’t need him though as a speculative shot from Oz was deflected from going out for a goal kick into the goal by Ahmet – Doh! Red pulled away to a three goal lead but Yellow slowly pulled it back. Red’s reply was immediate, popping in another but Yellow’s reply to Red’s reply was another immediate reply. Then they got in front too, 5-4 up at half time.
It was a bit a tit-for-tat after that and Red got up to 7-6 shortly after the break but then Matt pulled his hamstring and retired to goal and Yellow took advantage putting one in straight away. Even score and then even numbers as Matt couldn’t continue – not from exasperation at the lack of passes he was receiving, just a hamstring problem. Yellow tried to take advantage but Daniel dived and got a finger tip to the ball as Jeremy tried to dribble around him – nice.  Not so nice when he failed to reach his intended target soon after. The same Jeremy intercepted and although Daniel got a hand to it, the ball flew in. 8-7 to Yellow. Sadly Tufan also then picked up a sprain and hobbled into the goal for the last ten minutes. Red down to three and half men and Yellow took advantage again and fired in. Red pulled one back but there wasn’t time to restore the equilibrium. Quite a good game except for the injuries (get well soon chaps) but on the bright side Jim got a hatrick and Richard P returned two old bibs. You remember – the stolen ones I went on and on about. Yes, Richard P’s your man.

Final score: Yellow 9 – 8 Red

Yellow: James, Ahmet, Manny, Patrick +2
Colours: Oz, Daniel, Xavier, Liam, James, Pripet

Sunny & firm. Although a moody, bad-tempered & swearing cloud hung over us for the duration of the game.
6-a-side. Their eight mixing with our four, slightly begrudgingly after we snubbed them last week.  Not much togetherness. Or love. Colours passing was slightly inaccurate though and Yellow often stole possession with James as the attacking distributive midfielder.  They took the lead with Ahmet rounding the keeper. At the other end as keeper he dithered a little in front of goal and the keeper he’d rounded earlier knicked it from under him to poke home. Yellow 2-1 up at half time. They never gave up the lead either, always keeping one goal ahead, despite Oz (also the attacking midfielder) holding up the ball well. Inevitably James and Oz finally came together, Oz barging him over. If there wasn’t a grudge before there certainly will be now.  Daniel had one session in goal at the beginning of the second half. What a stormer – kept his team in the game saving five (a finger tip onto the post, a tackle with two on one, a dive to gather and two blocks) out of six shots in ten minutes. (Yeah, this doesn’t happen very much so I’m gonna milk it). Yellow up at 3-2 and 4-3 and in the last 5 minutes it became end-to-end, Colours coming close with Xavier firing high but Yellow cemented the lead with James putting away after a two-on-one goalmouth scramble..

Final score: Yellow 5 – 3 Colours

Oz – My apologies. I didn’t realise you’d replaced the awful gloves with better ones. I retract my scurrilous accusations.

Yellow: Jeremy, Kevin, Jim N, Gerald, Richard N, Tim
Red: JP, Matt, Jack, James, Richard P, Daniel

6-a-side. Sunny. Sketchy recollection, apologies for inaccuracies. Red took the lead with a protracted scuffle near the goal with Matt finally poking in. Yellow replied soon after but Red took the lead again. JP then took a goal kick. Well, I say goal kick. He passed it to Jim who took a touch and hoofed it back with interest into the goal. 2-2. JP redeemed himself though, running down the left channel to the goal line, cutting back in and finding the back of the net – just before half time too. 3-2 to Red.
Yellow equalised shortly after the break with Tim getting on the scoresheet. They then got in front only for Red to equalise with a low struck daisy cutter from Richard P, nice. A couple more here and there with Jim completing a hatrick – clearly saving up from last week and Gerald restored calamity parity with a weak pass across the back for James to pounce on and score. At some point JP was closed down after a few dragbacks and was encouraged to pass “To Jack! To Jack!”, his only unmarked teamate. “Not necessarily” came the response.
Final score: Red 5 – 5 Yellow

Meanwhile, in other news, Oz missed this game. Strangely this week he took back those useless gloves for a refund after being reimbursed for the original expense by the club – yes, suspicious indeed. Rumours abound with sightings of a man matching his discription recently arriving in Turkey, sitting on a yacht just off the coast, and sipping Piña Coladas purchased with his ill-gotten gains (£8.00). Interpol have been informed.
Oz – tell me this isn’t true!?

(For some unknown reason a different hairdresser joined us for the second half – and those present earlier in the summer will remember just how good he is). In the second half we played downhill and they had no answer to our counter attacking football. Goals from JP(2?), Oz (a delightful nut meg on the last man)and Jack (sweet strike from 20 yards) were met with only one from them.

7-3 the final score to us.

The game was memorable for our Dunkirk spirit vs their potty-mouthed bickering.  On paper, the teams were quite close and they prob had more possession than us. However, they had no answer to our resolute defending (even JP putting in several good shifts at the back) and general team spirit.  By the end they were shouting insults at each other and even wanted the game to stop before time.  (Maybe if it were a boxing match it would have been….)

Also memorable was a succession of misses from Jim. No one can deny he was taking up some good positions, but missed some very close range chances in the first half.  By miss, I mean miss the ball entirely.  By the second half some contact with the ball was being made, and his final shot of the game was even on target. You sensed that if we had just kept playing for another hour or so, then that elusive goal would have come. (This is not to detract though from Jim’s overall input and work rate).

Version Gerald

Marvellous. Although I’m sure it was 8-3 as the second-half ringer scored a brilliant solo effort. it’s important that we keep faithful records for posterity (in 100 years when Peckham Commoners are bigger than Real Madrid and geeky historians defossilise our website to find our match reports).

Version Oz (part 2)

For some reason I thought the score was 7-3 to us. Can those who played remember our scorers? I remember the 1st ringer scored two and Jeremy 1 in the 1st half. In the 2nd half I scored the 4th. Not sure about after that… I think JP got a couple, the 2nd ringer got one(?) and Jack definitely got one. So that’s 8! Well remembered Gerald!

A final word from El Capitano

Official Final score: 8-3

Thanks to Oz and Jeremy for the consistency of the two reports.  Exemplified by Oz saying we went 0-1 down whilst Jeremy says we went 1-0 up.

Also this quote: “….the four of us, (OZ, JP, Jeremy, Jim) nervously approached 8-strong hairdressers to ask if we could join in.” That could be construed to mean so much more.

Yellow (6): Richard N, Jonathan K, John G, Colin, Gerald, Oz
Red (5): James, JP, Richard P, Tufan, Daniel

Good turn out chaps. Yellow take the extra man – a vision? A mirage in the heat? No, it really is Jonathan Key, his only appearance since May 9th, 2010.
He got things started too with a dart down the left and a left foot shot, 1-0 up. Red had discussed this exact scenario but clearly didn’t take any notice. I don’t recall what transpired after this. Red equalised but then Yellow started to pull away. I can’t recall the score at half-time, Yellow up a couple I think. The highlight of the half was a Gerald trick down the left stunned everyone, a sort of skip and run with the ball – a cheer from everyone on the pitch.
Yellow began to pull away after the break, getting to 5-1. Red got a reply to make it 5-2, quick one touch stuff between JP on the left passing to Daniel who deflected to James who calmly struck in. The belief for a fightback was there! This quickly evaporated when JP in goal tried a dragback or two with Colin on his back. It looked good until he hoofed it up and out but into Colin’s face and it richoceted into the only space there was – the goal. Awful. Yellow pulled away then with a certain amount of lady luck on their side. John G kept possession just to the left of goal for what seemed like an age and then fed for Colin to tap in – poor defending. Another shot from Colin took a deflection and went between Richard P’s legs. It just wasn’t Red’s day. It could have been worse though, Oz hit the woodwork thrice and John G once and several times the ball hovered around the Red goal after trickling out of a tackle/blocked shot tempting Yellow to poke in but there was no one there. Red could only try and attack, such was the scoreline but it left them empty at the back, a similar situation to last week. Richard N took advantage and nodded in from a long ball. Red didn’t help themselves – Tufan was strangely off target with his shots and Colin made a good save from Daniel who also brilliantly stopped the ball dead from a JP pass with the goal at his mercy. Too brilliantly though as the ball was right under him so when he finally got his shot off, he was off balance and it went wide. He also scuffed a sitter which went out for a throw. A frustrating game for messrs JP, Daniel and Richard P who’d been on the same team and on the wrong end of a similarly frustrating game last week. Well done to Yellow though – good passing and took their chances. Hot and draining stuff

Final score: Yellow 11 – 4 Red

Yellow: Tufan, Kevin, Jeremy, Colin, Paul
Red: Matt, JP, Daniel, Richard P, Oz

5-a-side. Warm and sunny.
Two weeks away had JP champing at the bit. He made it count too with after a quick one-two and a dribble down the wing in the first few minutes and shooting in at a tight angle.
They seemed to be in control too, limiting Yellow in the final third. However they couldn’t increase the advantage as their final ball was rather poor. An example was Daniel trying to cut the ball down the pitch which would have put Richard P free on goal. But he cut it too flat and Tufan intercepted, took a short dribble and shot low. 1-1 after 20 minutes.
The rest of the half was close. Red just couldn’t sort that final ball but were resolute in their defending. No change to the score at the break and the only other event of note being Paul (on his first game since July 3rd) succumbing to his dodgy knee after 10 minutes and taking on the keeping role for the rest of the game.
The second half was much more interesting. Yellow took the lead but I can’t recall who scored. Red replied very shortly afterwards. JP released Daniel down the right who took a touch and shot. Sadly straight at Paul in goal who saved but the ball bounced up for Kevin to sidefoot calmly into his own net. 2-2. Retribution was quick though. Richard P accidently handballed in the area and owned up very honourably. Tufan shot hard and high, Oz dived and got a touch but not enough, 3-2 to Yellow. A couple more goals took it to 5-3 and then Red became frustrated and decided to attack. All of them. Which left Daniel in goal. Invariably Yellow intercepted that poor final ball and Daniel picked out the ball from his net three times in two minutes, two for Tufan (who was the Yellow kingpin in attack), one for Kevin. 8-4. Disastrous tactics. They didn’t recover. JP screamed with frustration upon his final blocked shot before going into goal. Matt (on his first appearance since March 27th due to cricketing commitments) shouted at anyone in frustration and Daniel niggled Jeremy and dispossessed him with the clocking ticking down but his frustration clouded his judgment and he lunged to shoot but ended in a tangled heap betwixt Paul, Kevin and Jeremy. My apologies. The only highlight for Red was the support. Richard P’s family gave a cheer once or twice in the seond half and a cross/corner from the right reaced Oz in the last few minutes. He volloyed low and hard into the net and got a cheer from some passing walkers.

Final score: Yellow 10 – 7 Red

Oz paid £8 pairs of two crap pairs of gloves. Jeremy paid £15 for one pair of very good ones. Is this an excessive use of clubs funds without consultation? Doesn’t it leave one side with a distinct advantage? Discuss.
Daniel bought a new clock. £10.99