Match reports

Yellow: Gerald, Jeremy, Oz, Richard P, Ed

Red: Stuart, Daniel, Richard N, Tufan, Kevin

Even as I write this less than 5 hours after the match I can’t recall much, and I only had two pints last night. It was an awful club though, with a Jazz FM DJ “in the house.” (that was a real quote). Why do people pick such bad venues for their birthdays? Ronnie Scotts bar. Oooo, I thought, quite posh. No. My friend hadn’t done his research – the good, live music bit is downstairs. The overpriced, crap food, naff harvester music, appalling DJ upstairs section was what he’d booked. Truly bad.  Idiot. 

5-a-side. Anyway, first blood to red, yellow equalised, red got another, yellow equalised and then started pulling away to 7-4.  Red got in back to 7-6 with 15 minutes to go and just when they thought they had the intiative, Oz adjusted his accuracy gauge and they promptly pumped another 4 goals to kill off any hope. A slightly scrappy game with a hard ball bouncing on a hard surface. Yellow took their chances, Reds didn’t.

Final score: Yellow 11 – 6 Red

Yellow (6): Ahmet, Oz, Jim N, Steve, Richard P, Ed

Red (5): JP, Jeremy, Gerald, Daniel, Kevin

Yeah, Red got up to a 4-2 lead but seemed to disappear in the second half, possibly due to the monotonous, soul-destroying drone of the vuvuleas, oh sorry, I mean Jeremy trying to “coach” his team.

Final score: Yellow 7-4 Red

Match cancelled. Only five players (Kevin, Tufan, Oz, Richard P, Daniel) turned up.

Red: Jeremy, Richard N, James, Kevin, Steve, Richard P

Yellow: JP, Ahmet, Daniel, Tufan, Oz, John G

Facts:

• Happy Father’s Day!
• 6-a-side
• Yellow managed an unprecidented number of interceptions.
• Ergo, red’s passing was woeful
• Daniel saved a penalty.
• Tufan played for the first time this year – welcome back
• Yellow got to 7-0 without reply
• Kevin finally headed in 20 mins from time to wipe off the cleansheet.
• Final Score: Yellow 13 – 3 Red

Yellow: Daniel, Jim N, Jeremy, Ahmet

Red: Ed, JP, Richard N, Gerald

Yellow got up to a 4-1 lead. Red made a comeback to go ahead 5-4. Yellow composed themselves and despite some sterling one-on-one keeping by Ed, managed to slot away quite a few in the closing stages. I can never recall anything anymore – can we video the games please? Final score: Yellow 10 – 7 Red

4-a-side on a quite a stuffy morning.

Yellow: Ahmet, Jeremy, Matt, Kevin, Richard N

Red: Oz, JP, Tim, Steve, Ed, Daniel

6 vs 5. A fair game until Tim went off within 10 minutes of kick off with a rather serious knee injury – get well soon sir. Yellow then slowly but surely pulled away to a 5 goal lead but Red just about managed to stay in touch despite lacking a single defensive player (questionable selection I say) and were within 3 goals with ten minutes to go. A cross field pass was dummied so perfectly by Matt that the intended recipient, Mr Norman, fell over in bamboozled confusion. In contrast he later rushed down the right wing and pinged over an inch-perfect cross for Jeremy to nod in, a wonderful goal.  I’ve had a busy week other than that so can’t recall much else of note.

Final score: Red 12 – 16 Yellow

Match cancelled. Only three players (Dan, JJ, Stuart) signed up.

An experiment….divide the players into a defensive team and an attacking team:

Red: JP, James, Tim, Ed

Yellow:  Gerald, Jeremy, Ahmet, Daniel

Scorchio.  So yellow pulled away to 5-1, red pulled a few back to 5-4, then yellow scampered away again to 9-6, only to be pinned back by red who’d been losing all game until the last 5 minutes when they got the last goal. Final score: 10-10.  A scuffed shot from Daniel going out for a throw was due to be the worst kick of the day but to his rescue came Ed who, taking a corner, chose to kick back to his own keeper but missed-kicked and it went out for a corner at the other end instead – Brilliant. But one of several awful corners. Dunno what the proves about attacking and defending, not much.

Red: JP, Matt, Jim N, Richard N, Daniel

Yellow: Ed, Ahmet, Gerald, James, Jim M

A second 5-a-side in a row! Well done you lot.

A funny old game. Great kick off, Norman lifting the ball for JP to volley it on target only for Ed to raise his hands to save his beautiful face. Free kick! Which came to nothing. Red had the better first 15 minutes but couldn’t pull away with a lead, yellow answering back each time. 2-2. Yellow took the initiative and popped in a couple of goals before the break leaving red to scratch their heads. 4-2. Not much of note in the first bit of the second half until Daniel put in a demoralising own goal when red had had the upper hand. He made amends 10 minutes later putting away a scrappy ball but although Red managed to keep possession, they chose not to shoot and yellow killed them off in the final five minutes. Final score: Red 3 – 6 yellow.

Good: Yellow – commendable for getting back in numbers to defend, which is why they won.

Bad: Red – ropey but agreed defensive policy of not getting back and relying on yellow to fluff their shots. Which is why they lost.

Red: Daniel, Jeremy, Richard N, Jim N, James

Yellow: Asif, Gerald, Jonathan, JP, Tim 

Another odd game, a tit-for-tat fist ten minutes with both teams coming away with two goals each, then nothing until the last ten minutes wher Red seemed to put away every chance. Final (harsh) score: Red 6 – 2 Yellow. Welcome back Jonathan, we’ve missed your left foot.