Revenge of the Toe-Poke

D'OH! 5 Raumplan 1

Same result as last time out but a different game. Once again we found ourselves without an opposition when the start time rolled over, but this time they showed up and a conventional game ensued.

It was a surprise that Kev failed to score given his form from the previous week and his sweet strikes during the warm-up. Lobby broke the deadlock as he has done so often with a nicely taken goal. Trev blazed a trail in the first half and it was a mystery that his efforts went unrewarded as well until very late in the half - he took the defence on and brought a couple of good saves from the keeper as well as missing the target a couple of times before finally burying a chance with a toe-poke. With a defence as unwilling to tackle as this one, we felt very optimistic at half time even though we had only a slender lead.

Lobby chimed in with a toe-poke in the second period for his second when we started to turn our domination into results on the scoreboard. Plaino put away a chance with uncharacteristic aplomb and the skipper toe-poked one after Trev's ingenius pass found him unmarked close to goal.

But for their 'keeper we would have had a lot more. Our 'keeper made his usual contribution and Euge always gives us something to remember. Before they finally scored, the opposition enjoyed some action close to goal. One of their blokes took a shot which rebounded to him off the post. With Euge now out of position it seemed a formality for the attacker to score, but when he shot towards goal, Euge somehow managed to scramble it away with a heart-stopping left handed lunge and the clean-sheet was still possible.

No game this week because of the bye, and in the next few days Euge will let everyone know what time next week's game is (the draw has not been announced yet).

(21-JUL-2008)

We'll Take the Points, Thanks

D'OH! 5 The Other Team 1

This was supposed to be a 10.40pm kickoff so when we got the call that the time was changed to 10pm, no-one was complaining. It was only after arriving at the venue that the organisers explained that the other team were working on the original timeframe so would we like to wait and play them, or take the points and try and find another team to play. Faced with the opportunity to do the right thing and wait for the real opposition, your skipper opted to take the points and play a game against a team from a lower division that had just completed one.

It took ages for us to break them down and it was actually a very enjoyable game of free-flowing football. They did really well considering they had already played once, but they did have 7 so they had some puff left. Euge spent as much time with the ball at his feet as he did with the ball in his hands and was only beaten once and that thanks to a deflection. At the other end it was Kev who opened the scoring, chipping his kick-in onto the head of a hapless defender who failed to realise he was part of Kev's master plan to get the ball into the back of the net. Sure enough the ball bounced off the unlucky bloke's scone and into the top corner for a terrific goal only at the wrong end. Kev backed up with a more conventional effort to continue his impressive record of scoring in pairs rather than scoring individually or rarely or never like some of the rest of us.

In the second half we nursed our advantage until Kev blasted a lay-off from a free kick with venom into the net for a goal that had authority written all over it. I have a feeling Kev got the next as well in what was quite a night for the young man, before the best move of the match saw Lobby and Neil combine superbly. With the defence cut to ribbons, Neil's momentum got the ball past the keeper and to the skipper's feet for a simple tap-in.

A big thank you to the other guys who gave us a great game and stayed behind when it would have been easy not to bother.

Next week our game is scheduled for 8pm against Raumplan.

(14-JUL-2008)

Lightning Fails to Strike

D'OH! 7 Lightning Strikes 3

Cruised to a 5-1 half time lead and let complacency sink in. A nice double from Kev was the only scoring in the second half as we drew that part of the match with a team who will surely struggle in this division. Trev and Lobby got pairs of goals in the opening half, the highlight of which was Plaino's assist. Playing deep in attack, Plaino was targetted by Euge's long throw out. Unlikely as it sounds, Plaino controlled the bouncing ball, held it up and then fed it into the path of Lobby who gratefully accepted the chance to score. A soccer player could hardly have done it better. Trev stuck his second away after the skipper's mazy run and the skipper himself added the final goal of the half when he touched on another of Euge's well directed throws, to beat the on-coming keeper. It was all too easy and they were hardly causing us too much anxiety in defence.

Our biggest problem appeared to be in achieving continuity as we had 7 players in attendance when 6 is the accepted optimum. The double changes did not help us but it was a good night to have that problem.

The coming Monday's game is at 10.40pm and I am not expecting to be stampeded by eager participants. I could be wrong of course.

Let me know if you are playing against the Sons of Reg Grundy's.

(07-JUL-08)

Not so Perfect

D'OH! 3 The Perfects 6

We did not enjoy losing to this lot of bad tempered hot heads. A few of their challenges late in the game would normally have led to bookings or at least freekicks, but by that time the result was settled and the ref maybe felt that he had pushed it already having upset them earlier in the game with some of his decisions.

We had lots of the ball and in the first half made them pay for some lazy defending by scoring 3 goals. We should have got more. In the second half we could not find the net and they continued to do so - they won the second half 3-0 and, with that, the match. With Lobby back in the side our shape was better and he bagged the third goal after being put through by the skipper. Trev probably got the other two, but Neil did some useful work and Plaino was always lurking. Euge kept the scoreline respectable on a busy night with hands and feet. A normal performance for him. Once they took a bit more care at the back we struggled to make inroads and we will need to recover some form pretty quickly.

With Trev and Neil missing the start we grabbed Abdi from the sidelines to make up the numbers and he started brightly. He pounced on a couple of the early defensive lapses but didn't find the net. Later we found him playing on one of the other courts so it looks as though he touts himself around. Good for him.

This week's game is at 8pm again.

(30-JUN-08)