We had even numbers for a change, 5-a-side and the game ended 4-all. Not sure if it was because we’d not played for two weeks, the warmer weather, the firmer pitch or a combo of all three, but it was a knackering game. Draw was a fair result IMHO.
Red (5): Dan, Jeremy, Jim N, Oz and Richard N.
Yellow (5): Ahmet, Darren, Ed, Stuart, Tim.
Red (4): Ahmet, Oz, JP, James
Yellow (5):Jeremy, Daniel, Tim, Jim N, Richard N
A foursome of natural goalscorers against five…er…well, whatever.
What on earth is that? Bright, clear with a round yellow thing in it? Blue sky and the sun! Oh, how we skipped to the pitch hand in hand, smiling at each other with glee.
An own goal by Richard N, a penalty after Richard N’s cynical and deliberate trip on JP, a lovely long ball from Jeremy headed in by Richard N. Not getting enough attention at home Richard? 3 points for Wigan on several occasions & both teams feeling the pleasure of leading. 4-4 at the break. Red pulled away to 8-5 in the second half and just when yellow’s heads began to droop, a couple of goals went in and red looked nervous. The last five minutes was an end to end, have a shot, oops missed, up the other end type of game but to no avail. Final score 9-9. Lots of interceptions, good = pass completion rate, bad. And yellow’s biggest threat in front of goal turned out to be Daniel who slotted in four. Yes, you read that right.
A very pleasurable game. I bet you’re glad you came. Paul even showed up to watch! Not sure why though.
Us (8): Jeremy, Oz, Ahmet, Jim N, Daniel, James JP, Matt
Them: 9
So not only did you rally to the cry by turning up to keep this club alive, you challenged The Other Team to a game, the audacity!
A large pitch, firm but with plenty of overnight rain made a zippy surface which gradually cut up during the morning. A resolute defence built on Ahmet and Jeremy with James filling the defensive midfield role just in front proved to be a difficult rearguard to break down. From there the ball was spread wide to the speedy rotating wingers of Matt, Jim N and Daniel or through the middle to the attacking midfield/striker duo of Oz and JP who in turn passed quickly between each other or out to the wingers. Playing together so often has obviously made us familair with each other but also better than we think! Hard work by all with good tackling, interceptions & passes though a little more communcation may help.
First half while the pitch was acceptable we had lots of one-two’s in the middle and through them with ease. JP with his twinkletoes trickery had shots straight at the keeper a couple of times and James had a pathetic left-foot-shot-and-then-fall-over situation and Jim was the most surprised to end up with the ball after their defensive mix-up and sand wedged it against the bar and upright from about 2 yards away. Award-worthy at this stage of the season! However we kept calm to come back comfortably from 2-1 down to 5-2 up at the break.
Second half much more of a mud bath and we withstood sustained pressure in the first 15 minutes but they did get back to 5-4. I think Jeremy enlightening us to the fact that we were a man down at half-time was an unnerving surprise to most us but we got them on the break and ran out comfortable 8-4 winners (two of their goals came from our defensive mistakes so effectively only two from their on efforts). Oz had a good session in goal punching out a succession of corners and Jeremy chipped a goal immediately after being allowed a rest from defensive duties. In the last 10 minutes there were basically 2 games going on with a no-mans land in the middle – very funny. Goals: JP 4, Matt 2, Jeremy 1, James 1.
Tasty stuff to watch, even better to be involved – I hope this report (joint effort from Oz, James and myself) does us justice!
Red (5): Jeremy, James ‘2’, John G, Richard P, Jim N
Yellow (5): Ed, Oz, Gerald, Richard N, Daniel
5-a-side! This week sponsored by Mud, the stickiest since Tiger Feet got stuck at number 1 for four weeks in 1974.
Daniel looked at the pitch just as he’d been selected to play out on the left. He’d climbed Dog Kennel Hill, he’d struggled up Herne Hill, heck he’d even been up Snowden, but this slope? He turned back to the car park to fetch his climbing gear. If you’re interested in football, this wasn’t a classic. The highlight was Oz volleying a high ball into the back of the net from a a third of the way up the pitch – very tasty. Sadly Gerald tumbled over fairly early on while trying to keep the ball in play and damaged his ankle. However he put in a sterling effort during his subsequent spell in goal but is now contemplating life as a stand in for Heather Mills. And just when Daniel’s frost bitten fingers curled over the last high ledge as he eventually got into postition on the wing, the final whistle went. 6 – 2 to Red. Once again, not really a fair reflection after yellow peppered the red goal in the second half but they only count if they go in. Football certainly died today. And romance was killed off too after James ‘2’ made his wife pay his subs! In front of his children! 81 years later to the day – this was the real St Valentine’s Day Massacre. Plant phood anyone?
Points of order:
1. Call me unconventional but can we play on a flat pitch next week.
2. Red bibs. One went missing after this game (so that’s one of you – red team) and another has gone walkabout in the last month. Please have a rummage at home as it’s a bit of waste of funds if we have to replace them (we’re down to only five).
3. James ‘2’ – may I have his e-mail? (if he wants to receive this pointless waffle each week of course).
Red (4): Jeremy, Richard P, Tim, Daniel
Yellow (4): Oz, Ahmet, Matt, JJ
So anyway…it transpires that Oz uses lubrication every week whereas Matt doesn’t bother at all and Richard Piper steals from his childrens’ piggy bank to finance his subs and who knows what else.
Final score Yellow 13-8 Red. Hat-tricks for a few people but the score isn’t a fair reflection of the game but does suggest that yellow took their chances and red didn’t. Someone even said “good goalkeeping” to me, the first time that’s been said since I started five years ago. No one liked the wet patch in the corner either, always best avoided.
Please go to “fixtures” and put your name in for this coming weekend, 14.02.10. I thank you.
Another top match, despite the hardened, yet slippery pitch thanks to the morning frost. Can’t remember all the scorers, but despite being a man short, reds worked hard and were more decisive infront of goal. They ended the first half 4-2 and at one point were 4-0 up. Notable incident was Richard N’s clash with Rob leading to him having small yet nasty looking cut on his shin… JP also scored a goal with a thunderous rising shot.
Second half was a closer affair as yellow pulled one back, only for red to reply with two making it 6-3. A combination of red tiring and yellow making better use of the extra man enable yellow to pull it back again with the score at 7-7. Then with a few minutes remaining Matt pounced on a through-ball to score the winner. Also, Richie seemed to recover from his injury to score several goals. Sorry, can’t remember exactly how many, four I think. Anyway, hope you’re OK mate.
Club business:
1. New guy seems to fit in quite well… Can whoever’s introduced him, please get his email address to Dan please?
2. Dan I have the bibs.
3. James I have this week’s coins. FYI: Jeremy owes the club three-weeks subs.
4. Kevin/Dan, I can’t create posts on the webby, so would you mind posting this report up?
See you all next week.
Oz
Red (7): Gerald, Jeremy, Richard N, Stuart, Tim, Jim N, James
Yellow (7): Rob, Oz, Ahmet, Matt, Daniel, John G, JJ
7-a-side – The highest attendence for a year!
Another good game. Only a handful of goals from a multitude of chances so some good defending going on. I can’t recall any of them I’m afraid so apologies to those on the scorecheet! Oh hang on, Jim got a soft header and some quick once touch passing on the wing left him to ping another in down the middle, a better quality goal. John G got one the other end with some similar one touch stuff. Few occasions of many passes in a row, good interceptions/bad passing/crowded pitch – you decide. And welcome to Tim. Final score: 3-3
Red (7): Matt, Rob, Oz, Ahmet, Jeremy, JJ, Steve
Yellow (6): Richard N, Richard P, JP, Gerald, Daniel, James
A soggy patch on Peckham Rye. In a rare move the teams were picked by two captains but with a late arrival absorbed by red, it was going to be an uphill stuggle for the oppostion. Jeremy got the first goal of the season but yellow got one back quick-sharp and then surprisingly pulled away with three goals including a lovely left foot curler from JP and an indirect free kick being rolled across the goal and Daniel finding the only gap amongst the 7 men filling the goal mouth. Oz replied 5 minutes before the end with a nice turn and a quick shot to beat Daniel at the near post. Yellow 4-2 Red at the break.
Red finally got into gear after the break using JJ and Steve on the wings and dominated midfield although Jeremy’s cynical dive wasn’t warranted with their superior height and numbers. Amid stupidly sloppy conditions for both teams red scored two goals against the hitherto stalwart yellow defense with Rob equalising half way through the second half. Yellow found an extra spurt in the last 10 minutes but got nothing from a handful of scrappy chances. Final score 4 – 4.
Great attendence – a sterling game indeed.
Names for next Sunday please, 10.30am, Peckham Rye.