Red (5): Ahmet, Colin, Jeremy, Kevin, Matt
Yellow (6): Jack, Jim N, JP, Oz, Richard N, Richard P
Oz: I think the first half ended 4-2 to Reds. Kevin: A five minute spell in the second half saw Yellow take the lead for the first time. MOM surely has to be Colin; two great goals, excellent tackling and an unstoppable engine.
Brilliant report.
Final Score: Yellow 9 – 5 Red
Red (5): Colin, Jeremy, Kevin, Oz and Richard P.
Yellow (4): Ahmet, Darren, Gerald and JP.
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?!
Red (4): Jeremy, James C, Ahmet, Colin
Yellow (5): JP, Jim N, Richard P, Daniel, Oz
5 v 4. JP got two own goals but made amends by scoring from the spot. Jeremy threw the ball from one end to the other to score. Daniel and Ahmet were involved in the worlds longest tackle. Yellow only spent a couple of minutes in front at 7-6. It rained.
Final score: Red 12 – 11 Yellow
Red: John G, Jeremy, Gerald, James, Tufan, Jim N
Yellow: Kevin, Richard P, JP, Ed, Daniel, Ahmet
6-a-side, nice. A rare appearance by Tufan. John had to leave at half time so Red started with an allegedly stronger team to hopefully build a cushion. They promptly pulled away to a 3 goal lead which caused some fireworks between the defensive pairing of Kevin and Richard P. But Yellow weren’t without chances and pulled a couple back and just when they were about to get in front, Daniel’s pass back to the keeper trickled under Ed’s foot into the goal. Doh. John got a 10 minute hatrick and Tufan was a marauding and dangerous midfield motor. However, Daniel made amends for the earlier combined error by crossing along the 18 yard box for Ahmet to fire a rocket in and then by stroking home a generous lay-off by JP just before the whistle. Yellow 6-5 up into the break.
The second half was a little more cagey, Red finding it harder to find a pass and being taunted by JP showboating with some needless trickery without the opposition anywhere near him. Gerald also tried to keep up the dangerous practise of passing blindly despite Jeremy’s half-time banning of the stunt. Yellow got a couple more but had a complacent wobble and Red had a little of their own in-fighting. However it was Yellow who kept their heads and used the superior numbers to triumph, Daniel picking up a loose ball on the half way line and slotting past Jeremy to put the game beyond reach. Red got one more but too late to have any effect. Some tasty saves in there too, James tipping over a rising shot being one and Richard stretching to push away a whizzing flyer from Jeremy the best of a bunch. A drunk tramp complete with fag & can of lager interrupting the last 5 minutes was an interesting spectacle – clearly hadn’t slept & high as kite.
Final score: Yellow 9-7 Red
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.
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