Match reports

Red (7): JP, James, Daniel, Tim, Darren, Colin, Oz
Yellow (7): ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?

So four confirmed became three because Tim had leak. But then the plumber arrived and Tim didn’t want to watch him so back to four. Then they became seven. Magnificent, game on. But the other team had seven too and without Kieran we couldn’t turn them down. Why did they set up on the slope when the whole of the Rye was free?
A large pitch and proper positions. They had they upper hand from the off but we absorbed the pressure for the first ten minutes, found our feet and then began to match them. Darren was particularly solid in defence and then went on a pass and run move with JP, received it back and shot. Sadly it was saved but only parried into the path of JP who stroked home. Nice. Can’t recall much else – with 7-a-side, the game becomes more organised with proper tactics, discipline & positions. I like writing about our crazy total football.
1-0 at half-time.
We had a bit of a natter but concluded that we were doing okay. Downhill for the second half and they seemed a bit lethargic which made us believe the game was for the taking and we certainly made some chances going forward. This left us a bit open at the back and ten minutes in a quick release down the left was crossed low for a simple tap in from a man who had plenty of time as Daniel was still returning from an attack. Two more goals followed in similar fashion as our frequent breaks (effective runs down the middle or either wing but the final ball was a little poor (as were theirs) and JP in an attacking midfield position was being very tightly marked) left us rather exposed at the back, the tall man distributing well. We had a giggle though. They were strangely quiet, no quips and not a sinlge smile. Perfectly polite but not a ‘fun’ team which left us feeling a bit flat. In summary, not our finest hour but a slighlty harsh scoreline. I guess this is what it feels like to be gazumped.

Final score: Estate Agents 1 – 3 Them

JP, Qu’est-ce c’est un “dragback” en Français?

Yellow (5): Gerald, Colin, JP, Steve, Tim
Red (5): Kevin, Daniel, James, Richard N, Simon

Hot, sunny, firm.

The other team didn’t have enough and clamoured for us to join them but with 5-a-side already there wasn’t going to be any subsidising their lack of attendence. No siree. Especially with JP wanting an easy, clean game and Kieran unable to look him in the eye.

5-a-side then after 5 minutes when Simon (a ringer) asks for a game. Tim returns just over a year after his injury, welcome back sir!
A slow start, really slow. Red kicked off and strolled forward but in no rush to pass. Yellow didn’t seem keen on pressing. It did speed up a bit but not much. JP even tutted to himself when he lost control of the ball under no pressure from anyone and still had plenty of time to gather it back and try again. Yellow notched up two goals after the initial quiet period and Red then pulled two back including a nice header from Simon. This was almost copied by Daniel except for a fingertip reaction save from Steve(!). 2-2 at half time.
Red then went ahead at the beginning of the second half. This was promptly undone by Daniel fumbling a not very testing shot but he made amends shortly afterwards to reinstate the one goal advantage with a large puff which he repeated on every subsequent shot. Even-stevens from then on….3-3, 5-5, 7-7, justice being declared upon every goal. Red always managed to gain an adavantage and yellow pulling it straight back. Colin looked to be in the perfect position to pull Yellow ahead when the ball bounced for him a yard in front of goal after a keeper/defending/attacking melee nearby. However, even though he was facing the right way and had no one between him, the ball and the goal he still managed to allow Richard N to grope his hand around him to grapple the ball away from danger. Amusing. I reckon that’s why Richard N wins the goalkeeping award each year. Jeremy would never have been out of position in the first place ‘cos he’s a good keeper. Mr Norman in comparison, much more entertaining. Tim just avoided an own goal volley but Steve had already deflected one into his own net. It was about 50/50 possession but Red seemed to keep the ball on the ground more while Yellow put in the majority of aerial crosses. And then in the last ten minutes Red took their chances and pulled away to binary bliss. Yellow had no answer and accepted the inevitable as the clock ticked down. A clean and easy game that JP had so desired.

Final score: Yellow 7 – 10 Red

Macfest on Saturday next week – Will you be wheat or will you be chaff?

Sadly this report disappeared during the loss of the website. As three weeks have elapsed since this became apparent, I have forgotten all the happened other than that Ahmet scored the equaliser in the second half. Feel free to add anything if you can recall owt.

No idea of the teams but attendees were:

Ahmet, Colin, Daniel, Darren, Ed, Gerald, James, Jeremy, Jim N, Kevin, Oz, Richard P, Steve

Final score: 1-1

Red (4):  Jeremy, Rich N, Kev, James  (who picked these, 50% of this team are hungover!)

Yellow (5):  Ed, Colin, Mike, Damon, Richard P

First half fine and sunny, firm underfoot, second half some HEAVY showers, proper rain, slippery underfoot

A dubious start, Richie N and James arrive at their normal time of 10.38 – this time complete with hangovers – no-one there…  through the mist, Jeremy!  He was a NO, but managed to get a late license.  We decided on the “build the goals and they will come” approach, sure enough Colin and Mike appeared straightaway to help carry them and before long we have a 9-strong plan.  Hats off to Damon who has a 2 week old baby.

Anyway after the usual, the game starts briskly, two very good saves by Richard P from James and Kev boded (?) well for Red, but Yellow scored a swift 3 goals, details unclear except the third where Jeremy’s positioning abandoned him and guarded his left post rather than the space between.  A couple more good saves from Yellow frustrated the Reds further, but eventually Kev and James make if 3-2 before Yellow pull away to 5-2 with some solid play.  Step forward Jeremy to grab a hat-trick before half time, pick of them a great solo run and outside-of-the-foot finish.   5-5 half time felt right – the rain came down, Kev pit-stops into “wets” (mouldeds).   The same pattern develops, Yellow go 3 goals up, Red pull two back, Yellow get to 10, so do Red….  Skiddy pitch made for more errors and a lot of falling over, couple of comedy goals, Colin decides to leave one that trickles in, amends by scoring with a rather weak misplaced pass, straight into the bottom corner watched by all as time stood still.  Yellow grab a late winner, heartbreak for Red, a good run out, a good workout.  See you next week.

Final score: Yellow 11 – 10 Red

Thank you to James McG for the report.

Yellow (7): Colin, Ahmet, Ed, JP, Damon, Steve, Richard N
Red (7): Jeremy, Kevin, Daniel, Darren, Gerald, James Paul

Hot, muggy, firm and mown grass.
Welcome back Damon. He joined us slightly late (through no fault of his own) which upset Yellow who became quite vocal about the one man disadvantage, even though it was clearly explained that he would shortly join them. Red ignored the disproportinoate protestations and scored, Daniel shooting off target but Darren on hand to alter the course of the ball into the net. And then Damon joined us. Just as Paul scuffed a shot, jarred his knee and had to exercise caution and take himself off after only 5 minutes. The one man disadvantage was now the other way round. Yellow were ungracious in the change of fortunes by suddenly staying very quiet about the numerical difference. Red didn’t moan at all. It was a tough game, both teams passing and moving well, defences doing their job but a few good shots going off. Colin then passed down the middle for Damon to get the slighest of touches to dink the ball past Daniel, a goal on his return. They got another soon after and then just before half time added a third.
The second half was just as good quality wise with both defences really limiting the chances. James ran and ran and ran, pinging off passes to whoever was supporting the attacks. Darren dived to tip a shot around the post. JP significantly increased his dragback per game average and the only shot he managed went out for a throw whilst Steve lost his voice shouting for the ball. Gerald took out Damon with challenge but the free kick came to nothing. Amongst all this, Daniel laid off to Darren who fired in first time. This upped the already hard tempo for the last 20 minutes as Yellow didn’t want to loose the advantage and Red wanted to win. But although both teams fought hard to the end there was no more spoils to be had.

Final score: Yellow 3 – 2 Red

Stat man Dan says:
1: Half way through the season. Of the 25 games so far (+ one cancelled), 12 have ended with only a one goal difference. The total for the previous three years is 24. Good team selections!
2: Damon’s last game was on July 12th, 2009. Exactly two years to the weekend.
3: I’m not going to publish half way stats as I don’t want to influence your performances. There are some shocking (good and bad) stats in there though. Attendence is at an all time high (average 12 per game) so I think I speak on behalf of all of you – thank you for the love.

It didn’t look good. 10.50am and Colin, Darren, Tufan and Daniel got the goals and began to set up for a mere 2 a-side.
Then Paul, James, Ahmet, Richard N and Gerald all appeared! BELIEVE. We now just had to wait for JP who’d said yes last week, had since confirmed by e-mail and also had the bibs.
JP? JP? Cooo-eee?

Yellow (5): Gerald, Ahmet, Colin, Darren, Tufan
Red (4): Paul, James, Richard N, Daniel

Hot and firm. Yellow couldn’t score from their own half. Welcome back Gerald from self-imposed injury exile – he still hasn’t seen a Doctor since his last game on April 10th – go you fool!
Red got off to a good start, a testing shot from Paul was saved by Gerald, low down near his post. But he somehow managed to let the small amount of spin bamboozle him and it somehow rolled in. Red then got to 3-2 after 5 minutes. But Yellow replied by forming lots of triangles with the extra man (Tufan, Darren and Colin combing well with Ahmet distributing from the back) and rolled in quite a few to pull away to 9-5 by half time. And what a long half time that was.
Red got the bit between their teeth all of a sudden and clawed back several goals to bring it to 9-8. But they took their foot off the gas and Yellow began to pull away and their opponents had no answer, the stunning fightbacks of the previous two weeks was not to be repeated. Some great saves in there from Richard N and Ahmet, a couple of argy-bargy free kicks, a kung-fu goal from Colin, a tasty deflection in by James, a nifty turn by Daniel, some rockets from Paul, some in and some rather wayward.

Final score: Yelllow 16 – 10 Red

Yellow (5): JP, Richard N, Jeremy, Kevin, Daniel

Red (6): Darren, Colin, Richard P, Steve, Jim N, Matt

Hot. Really hot. Firm.

Welcome back Matt. A one man advantage to Red who were stronger from the off and were two goals to the good without reply. They looked good too, Colin in a red cap, Jim in his fishermans hat and Richard P in his Rayban Wayfarers. The second (I think) came from a save with the ball ending up in front of an empty goal and both Colin and Darren took a swipe – 1/2 a goal each. I don’t recall much else – hot, fast. Daniel had the ball literally knicked off him by Darren just as he was swinging to shoot. Yellow did manage to get off some shots but struggling to find space. Then just before half time JP fired in to save their bacon and give Yellow belief.

Second half kick off was rather too prompt in this heat and a rather innocuous pass was inadvertently knocked back by Matt into the path of the onrushing Kevin who made no mistake – game on! However the reply was immediate with Colin (a regular threat running in behind defenders)  connecting with a cross to nod in a tasty header, the lead restored. And then they got another. Yellow replied to give belief but again the Red response was immediate, always keeping a step ahead, teasing the Yellow team. JP then crossed for Daniel who took an unnecessary  touch and seemed to have missed the chance but calmly rolled it across the line. Game back on. Richard N ended up with ball at the near post with the goal mouth gaping but Jim N did just enough to put him off and the shot scuffed the outside of the post – calamatous. Not to be outdone Kevin fluffed an easy chance and then Daniel completely missed a perfectly weighted low cross from JP two yards out. Triple calamity. Red seemed to become complacent after this and that’s when JP took advantage and became rapant. Every pass went to him and he seemed to score at every time, a definite turnaround of fortunes in the last 10 minutes when they got in to the lead for the first time and indeed pulled to two away when Richard P was the unfortunate person to get in the way of a ricochet and the ball rolled in for an own goal. Matt fired a low rocket past Daniel to pull Yellow back to a one goal advantage and then Darren looked to have gained parity when he fired a shot from the left to the far post but Daniel just managed to dive and get his fingertips out to turn it round the post, phew!

Hot and hectic stuff. Lots of interceptions/poor passing. And for Red, that’s got to hurt. Two weeks in a row the team with fewer players has stolen the win at the end without being in front for the previous 70 minutes. Elated? Demoralised? What are you?

Final score: Yellow 7 – 6 Red

Red (5): Ahmet, Paul, Richard P, Daniel, Darren

Yellow (6): Kevin, Jim N, Jeremy, Ed, Colin, Richard N

So I published this on the day. Then the website disappeared (something to do with migrating the server – gobbledigook to me) and when it reappeared, this report had vanished. The following is a vague memory of what happened – please feel free to add comments. I did recall every goal at the time but can’t recall two of them as well as a few other details, my apologies.

The first half kicked off with Red showing the desire. Ahmet squared from the right for Daniel to stroke in. Paul got involved in a tangle at the near post and his poke fortuitously evaded all the legs and rolled in. Then a perfect copy of the first goal except Darren crossed from the left this time for Daniel to repeat the move.

Yellow strangley decided to hang back for the second half, hoping to absorb the pressure and attack on the break. Red shrugged their shoulders who passed back to Ahmet who fired a rocket from about halfway inside his own half which firstly curved away from goal but then back towards it. Jim N was insighted by Jeremy bending to get it of the way and it flew into the low corner – tasty. A Yellow break ended with the ball rolling to Jim N’s feet and he fired at the empty goal 3 yards in front of him. Red throw. Hilarious. And unbelievable – how did you do that? No really, please use the comment button below. Yellow finally got on the scoresheet though. Kevin fired at Daniel who could only parry the shot into the path of the on rushing Jim who made no mistake this time. Richard P replied with a run down the left to fire in across goal from a tight angle.

It wasn’t that one-sided but a strange choice of defensive second half tactics by Yellow, to the victor the spoils.

Final Score: Red 7 – 1 Yellow

Red (5): Richard N, Kevin, John G, James McG, James C (minus last 15 minutes)

Yellow (5): Ahmet, Richard P, Darren, Ed, Joel

Joel, from the ‘others’ joined us as his other team wouldn’t let him join them, Jeremy had the shits so couldn’t play and John kicked dog shit off the pitch (Jeremy?) – fortunately it didn’t hit a fan.

Red came out of the blocks hard and true and took three early goals, Kevin opening the scoring with a well taken left footer and for the third John had time to go to India to pick the tea before making it, drinking it, then shot and scored. Yellow finally got something going, Joel contrived to miss from half a yard and to rub salt in the wound, James C’s clearance bounded all the way into the opposing goal, comedy stuff, but not for Yellow. Ahmet was not happy. At all. Red raced to a 6-1 lead but Yellow pulled it back to 6-3 by half time.

Yellow started with the same urgency in the second half hence a tighter game. Kevin’s 100% shots-to-goals quickly became 25% before Yellow pulled two back, a power blast from Ahmet beat James McG at his near post and was followed by a lovely dink shot from Darren past the same keeper, 6-5. Interesting, particularly with James C leaving 15 minutes before the end leaving Red a man down…which arrived without  further score to a not unsurprising period of sustained Yellow pressure, Ed not having the best day in front of goal and energetic Red defending! An exciting y-yo finish ensued. Kevin upped his stats with an excellent dispossess-and-score move, 7-5, then a trademark Ahmet distance shot, 7-6. But James McG settled the games with a tidy finish from Kevin’s cross. Quote of the match from Kevin: “Cushion to press on.”

Final score: Red 8 – 6 Yellow

Thank you to Kevin, Richard P and James McG for report input in the absence of El Capitano.