Match Report

Valentine\'s Day Massacre Sees Pete Harvey’s Joy of Six

After last week's disappointing performance well and truly behind us we lined up today against the teachers AKA Avery Hill Vets at John Roan playing fields as follows.

Gary Rosslee- GK
Robin Lipscombe – RB
Tony Simpson –CB
Matt Wright CB
Danny Saines – LB
Simon Harvey – RM
Daragh Nott – CM
Neil Connelly - CM
Aaron Carpenter - LM
Pete Harvey – CF
George K – CF

Our subs were

Paul Tanton
Stuart Manwaring
Darren Mace
Will ??

It was Avery Hill who took the lead with just 5 minutes gone after some slack defending from a short corner which found an unmarked Avery header that drew Rosslee into an initial save from 6 yards out but the rebound fell kindly to a grateful Avery player who had time to compose himself and fire through a crowded Farnborough penalty box into the roof of the net 1-0 Avery Hill.

Farnborough enjoyed the better play from the restart and created a couple of good chances, the most memorable came from Aaron ‘smooth operator’ Carpenter whose own striding run found himself one on one with the Avery GK, but his shot went agonisingly wide, Avery continued to ride their luck when Daragh Nott’s audacious back heel was somehow kept out by the GK and the goalframe, and Farnborough still trailed 1-0.

It was suddenly starting to look like one of those games where nothing was going right for the Guild when Farnborough were awarded a free kick to the right hand side of the goal about 20 / 25 yards out. Pete Harvey stepped up and curled a sweet left foot effort around the wall, which caught the Avery goalkeeper by surprise and nestled perfectly into the bottom corner where he had or should have been covering!! 1-1.

No sooner after the whistle blew for the restart Farnborough found themselves 1-2 up courtesy of a cool finish from George Kleanthous, once again the Avery goalkeeper must have been disappointed with his positioning but Farnborough did not mind and were now 1-2 up.

It looked like Farnborough were going into the half time break with the slimmest of leads but another lapse of concentration at the back saw the teachers gifted with an equaliser, this time Tony Simpson diverting the ball into his own net after he failed to leave the ball for the oncoming and committed Rosslee! 2-2 and half time. (Simpson, see me after the match, 100 lines…..‘I must listen to my goalkeeper’)

Avery then went 3-2 after a neat finish past Rosslee after the back four had been caught out with another ball over the top which found an unmarked attacker who duly obliged. 3-2 Avery Hill.

What happened next was all a bit of blur to be fair as Pete Harvey dazzled the opposition (and at sometimes his own players) as he not only staked a claim for the top scorer accolade but turned in a one man virtuoso performance. He found the net another 5 times courtesy of some clinical finishing and a good team goal, which was created by Rob Lipscombe after great awareness in the Avery Hill box.

Sandwiched in between Pete’s 5 second half strikes was a debut goal from Stuart Manwaring who made up for a previous miss after seeing his close range shot sail over the bar, in his defence the last time Stuart scored a goal was when South Africa were awarded the world cup, serial killer Harold Shipman was found hung in his prison cell, and Norris McWhirter passed away.

Yes it turned out that Stuart had not scored a goal for 6 years and there was Pete netting 6 times in just 90 minutes!!

MOM Pete Harvey for his half a dozen goals all out of the top drawer.

Next week sees a short trip to The Warren – not to be mistaken for the one in the film Watership Down. But there is a good chance this game will produce the same amount of tears as the popluar 1978 motion picture did!!!