Yellow: Ahmet, Tufan, Gerald, Keith
Red: Daniel, James, Tufan
Red: Ahmet, Colin, Daniel, Chris
Yellow: Tufan, Oz, Jim, Matt
4-a-side to see out the year. Muddy slop. Both teams took led at least twice and both teams preferred to attack which meant that when they lost possession several attempts were made to launch a long shot over the keeper…Ahmet came close when his attempt skimmed the bar but Tufan eventually made it count when his long ball soared over the keeper and in. Everyone scored. Colin, Daniel and Tufan competed for muddiest person but the winner in the end was my washing machine which, as we based teams on the tops we were already wearing, only had to do 1 bib and the gloves – thank you for your consideration.
Final score: Yellow 19 – 19 Red
Yellow: Pete, Prit, Jack, Alan, Femi
Red: Colin, Chris, Daniel, Ola, Rafa
Them: Pete, Prit, Larry, Phil, Alan, Chris, Femi, Jack, Dan
Us: Chris, Kevin, Keith, Jim, Ahmet, Daniel, Matt, John, Ray?
In no particular order….Alan stole in behind his marker but struck just wide; Prit put in a nice cross for their Dan who, with most of the goal gaping two yards away, aimed his shot back across the goal into Keith’s grateful hands. Our Daniel slid in with a great block to deny Alan. Defensive moment of the game? No – Matt surpassed it by getting nicking the ball off Prit just as his foot was about to strike the ball. Kevin got a clearance in the face from a fellow defender. Their Jack went off at half time injured and Phil pulled a hamstring so spent most the game in goal. After a great game of passing last week, it was back to it’s usual dodgyness. Our Daniel’s throw slipped out of hands and landed two metres in front of him – worst throw ever? Their Chris got frustrated. Their Dan bundled in a goal after a cross from Femi who may have been offside when receiving the pass. Was offside being given or not? The memo certainly didn’t reach everyone. There were several free kicks and Yellow had one after a handball just outside the area; Ahmet stepped up and fired his shot straight down the middle and in. Jim headed in from a cross. Impressive skill but sadly into his own goal. Our Daniel took possession of the loose ball from a corner, sprinted up the wing and a put in a tasty cross…handball? Who knows. It wasn’t given but he put in a second cross shortly after to our Chris at the back post. Pete got up to head in instead, wrong footing the keeper. Once again, impressive skill but also into his own net and depriving Chris of his first goal for PCFC. Romanian Ray (was that his name?) was quite good and twice looked to have put Yellow in front but the concept of studs had eluded him and glory did the same. Put all these moments in the right order and what do you get?
Final score: Us 2 – 2 Them
Red: Ahmet, Daniel, Kevin, Gerald, Tufan, Chris, Sundy
Yellow: Prit, Alan, Femi, Chris, Larry, Ola, ?
Pinch, punch, first day of the month, white rabbits. 7-a-side! The first head-to-head in a while and Chris took a bow for his debut – introduced by Matt who had the foresight to introduce a newbie while he became father for the first time; congratulations Matt, welcome Chris! We looked to be a man down but Sundy was late so joined us to make it even sides.
Kevin, Gerald, Ahmet made up a solid defensive wall, rotating according to who was in goal while Daniel had a great stint at right back, blocking several shots (a red bruise remains on his upper thigh at the time of writing is proof of his efforts) and he drove forward on the break once or twice, firing narrowly over the far corner when he should have crossed to the unmarked duo of Chris and Tufan who, with Sundy, made a formidable attacking threesome with Ahmet in support, who in turn, seemed to be in the right place to make an inordinate number of defensive interceptions. Our passing, for once, regularly met it’s intended target, satisfying triangles aplenty; Kevin and Gerald typified this by regularly passing calmly out of defence rather than the usual panicky hoof we resort to. Yellow just couldn’t gel and Red went into the break 4-0 up. Stand out moment – Chris almost sliding through the net at the back post in his attempt to get on the end of a cross that was unfortunately blocked before it even got to him.
The second half, Red’s enthusiasm got the better of them and the discipline went out of the window and consequently Yellow finally bundled one in, got another, added a third through an unavoidable ricochet own-goal by Daniel followed by a fourth but Reds attacking flair showed; Tufan was effective on his return after eight weeks out with few goals, Ahmet added a couple with his forays forward and Sundy also got on the score sheet. And Chris, yet to score on his debut went on a mazy run past static defenders and a statuesque keeper but could still only shoot wide – doubly bad as everyone had stopped because the clocked had already beeped. He’ll fit in well.
Final score: Red 8 – 4 Yellow
Red: Paul, James, Oz, Patrick, ?
Yellow: Ahmet, Matt, Daniel, Ibrahim, ?
Low numbers but it was 3-a-side or 10-a-side. So we started with a small pitch, small goals, the half way rule and every-teamate-has-to-have-a-touch-before-you-can-score rule. And it got to 2-1 after five minutes when two extras appeared and we took them on, got rid of the rules and started the clock again. Then it got to 3-3 after another ten minutes when another two joined us and we increased the pitch size, changed to goals back to full size and started the clocks again. They seemed a bit moody because the other team hadn’t let them join their game but that’s what happens when you’re an hour late. The two on Yellow were so moody they couldn’t be bothered to defend. Anyway, back to the game. There was never more than one goal in it, and there wasn’t even that at the end. The game felt like someone had stolen your spliff. Disjointed.
Final score: Red 7 – 7 Yellow
Red: Oz, Ahmet, Matt, Daniel, Damon, Ola, Ibrahim, Bruno
Yellow: Chris, Alan, Larry, Phil, ?, ?, ? ?
Final score: Red 2 – 1 Yellow
Red: Jack, Oz, Ahmet, Eddie, Rafi
Yellow: JP, Daniel, Henny, Gerald, Julius
JP appears! Jack appears! Daniel returns after a month off! Julius, Ahmet and Gerald err on the positive side of maybe and Oz remains a stalwart! And with the other team it was a total of 27!!!! So we went 5-a-side, borrowing a few of theirs and left the rest of them to it.
Rafi started the scoring. Yellow equalised and then romped to a 5-2 lead including the scruffiest of scuffles in the red box, Daniel back healing the first attempt, and the loose ball then being hacked goalwards about 5 times in as many seconds, making the drunk keeper (Jack) very dizzy and although JP stood on the periphery screaming to release the ball to him, everyone ignored his pleas and finally Daniel tried a back heal again and scored. But then Red’s superior passing ability paid dividends and they romped to a 8-5 lead. Daniel was nutmegged by Jack three times, the long grass seemed to thwart Rafi and Eddie, JP got frustrated. Although Yellow stopped the flow and got a few of their own, they couldn’t make up the difference.
Final score: Yellow 8 – 11 Red