Match reports

Yellow (8): Ahmet, Jim N, JP, Jeremy, Gerald, Kevin, Richard P, Daniel
Red (7): Larry, Gareth, Joe, Keiran + three others whose names I didn’t catch – aka ‘The Other Team’

Halloween on Peckham Rye.
The leaves rustled in the chilly wind that whistled through the trees surrounding the park. The pools of recent rain mirrored the grey clouds rolling overhead. A face appeared in the water, reflecting from the shadowy figure in the car park. A face so hideous and so ugly that the children in the cafe ran screaming to their parents, unable to comprehend why such a beast would blight their little memories for the rest of their hitherto innocent and carefree lives. Jeremy stared into the puddle wondering why his footballing chums were so late.
Yeah, so as a result he volunteered us to play them. We could have had a nice cosy morning in the park playing amongst our sensitive little selves but instead we got a hard slog with the chance of being crippled for life by the sliding psycho, the halloween horror tackler.
This all could have course been avoided if we had turned up punctually and therefore not given Jeremy the opportunity to sacrifice us. 10.30am
The game wasn’t a corker. A bit scrappy with neither team managing to string together many passes. Ahmet dusted of the cobwebs and made an appearance after being away for a few weeks. JP got a hatrick, no idea who got the other one. Their ghouls came from a keeping fumble by Gerald and an own ghoul from Jeremy. Anyway we’ve now beaten them twice in a row – satisfying but jaded by the idiot.
Final score: Us: 4 – 2 Them.

Match abandoned – only two people signed up (Oz & Paul).

Yellow: Jeremy, JP, Kevin, Richard N, Gerald, Daniel

Red: Richard P, Ed, John G, Neil, Oz, James

6-a-side again, two in a row – good attendence chaps and another good close game. Welcome Neil (sp?). Someone in the yellow team mentioned the words “clean sheet?” a few minutes before half-time as they were 2-0 up and looking solid. A twice-deflected red shot promptly flew in 5 seconds before the break. The gap stayed the same with some good passing from both teams and the game settled at 5-3 with 15 minutes to go. Neil then went down with a serious knee injury during a passage of play and JP ended up with the ball and popped in a legitimate goal 2 seconds later. Sadly Neil couldn’t continue (get well soon sir) so Yellow sportingly scratched off the goal but then Jeremy swapped to Red. Yes, you read that correctly. The goal was scrubbed off AND Yellow (rather than red) went a man down. Jeremy was keen to move. Yellow didn’t want him to go. Red weren’t that enthusiastic either. And he was the one to first shout ‘stop’ when Neil went down. Suspicious behaviour I say. Dodgy betting patterns down the local Peckham bookmakers I wager. Anyway, in the last ten minutes, Red got back 2 goals.

Final Score: Yellow 6-6 Red

Except that’s a farse. WTF?! Scrubbing off a goal AND losing a player? Poo-hah. I’m going to scrub the last 13 minutes of that game from the official stats.

Final final score: Yellow 5-3 Red

Red: Matt, Richard P, Richard N, Jeremy, Darren, Jim N
Yellow: JP, Oz, Jim M, Colin, Gerald, Daniel

6-a-side. Sunny. Good turn out. Close game – maximum gap, two goals. Actually some nice linking play from both teams, slightly less scrappy than usual – probably the long grass slowing the game down to suit our ageing squad! Hatrick for Jim N. Yellow went in 3-2 up at half time but came out losers.
Final score: Red 6 – 5 Yellow

Red: Kevin, JP, James, Jeremy
Yellow: Matt, Darren, Colin, Daniel

4-a-side. Hmmm, dodgy team selection methinks with Red pulling away to a 10-5 lead at half time. However in a bid to preserve some pride, Yellow burst out of the second half and pulled it back to within one goal at 13-12 and just when they were about to equalise, Red pumped in a couple more and yellow couldn’t get close again, especially as Matt pulled up with cramp for the last 15 minutes. Everyone scored. Welcome back Colin. Comedy shot from James from the back of his head. Heroic slide from Daniel to block a shot from Kevin only to see the ball deflect back off the striker over his still sliding form into the goal. Funny goal from Matt: well in his own half tries to pass up the pitch to Darren in the box. JP attempts to block but the ball only scraps his studs and rolls tamely past keeper James into the net. Nice to have a fence to stop the ball rolling miles away.
Final score: Yellow 18 – 16 Red 

Stat man Dan says: 18-16 is the highest combined tally of goals (34) this year. You have to go back to 2009 to find a higher combined scoreline, 19-19 (38) on February 15th. But that’s also beaten by the 25-15 (40) final score on July 20th 2008. However, in first place on August 31st 2008, the score at the final whistle was 24-18, an incredible 42 goals in one match.

Red: Richard N, Richard P, Gerald, Ed, Jim N, Kevin, Oz, James, Jeremy, James C, Daniel

White: Rob, Darren, Matt, John G + 7 others.

I personally don’t recall much from the first half, it all seemed to be happening down the right with Gerald, Ed, and Jim N combining well down the wing. Most of whites attacks seemed to be down that side too. James seemed to be all over the pitch, a true engine involved in defense, midfield (linking with a solid Richard P) and attack, hitting a post in the process. Jeremy kept a clean sheet, a fingertip save being the highlight, with good defensive support from Richard N & James C (our only height) and a vocal Kevin.
White came out with a spring in their step in the second half and the early pressure paid off with Rob taking advantage of Red’s half-time goalkeeper change and looping a fine shot over the stretching Richard N. Red didn’t buckle though and equalised soon after with Oz receiving the ball at the top of the area, turning around a defender and hitting a left-footer low into the far corner. The joy was short-lived as white (with John G (G for midfield General) activating his gravitational pull mechanism, sucking in the ball from every direction and distributing accordingly whilst implementing his opposition deflector shield which meant we couldn’t (or just didn’t bother to) get anyway near him to challenge for the ball) immediately pulling another one back and soon after a long range low shot from the left channel made it three. That was a very long sentence with a very long bracket, does it even make sense? James C and Darren had a clash of heads sometime around here but both got up to respectful clap from both teams. With 15 minutes to go, Red got a corner and a fortuitous richocet off a defender in the six yard box put the ball into the path of Daniel who stroked home his first ever 11-a-side goal. Whoopie-lah! The game became more stretched with breaks happening for both teams but the Red comeback wasn’t to be. However, having not played an 11-a-side match for over a year, it was a very repectable performance. Great turn out too, thank you for your sterling efforts.
Final score: White 3 – 2 Red

• Darren, Rob, Matt – thank you very much for generously playing for the other side. In doing so, you have joined the illustrious Charity Club, a small but select group of Peckham Commoners FC who have kindly donated their services to the opposition. Membership Fellows include: Kevin, Richard N, Scott (retired) & myself. Welcome.
• John G – thank you very much for organising the pitch and pass on our thanks to your team for a good, clean game. I don’t recall a single foul!
• The previous 11-a-side: Yet again my stats come to the fore! It was on Sunday 18th January 2009, 4-2 to us.

Red (4):  James, Ahmet, JP, Daniel

Yellow (5):  Jeremy, Kevin, Gerald, Oz, Richard P

Yellow 8-3 up at the break. Red made a passionate comeback including a ‘goal-of-the-season’ contender from JP but it wasn’t to be.

Final Score: Yellow 13 – 11 Red

A mixture or yes’s, maybe’s and surprises turning up but JP is rapidly becoming the phantom ‘yes’ man.
Same reason as last time sir?

4-a-side

Red: Oz, Ahmet, Richard P, Daniel
Yellow: Richard N, Jeremy, Kevin, John G (substituted at half-time due to injury, replaced by Andrew)

Red went into the break 5-3 up even after Daniel squandered a hatful of chances to increase the lead. He didn’t improve in the second half and let the aforementioned hatful of goals in.
Torrid and calamatous, I have nothing else to say.

Final score: Yellow 11 – 8 Red

Match abandoned – only two people signed up (Oz, Kevin)