Match Report

After the collapse against Cudham 2 weeks ago luckily we had a fortnight\'s break to lick our wounds and regroup. And what a last couple of weeks we have had. Chelsea against all odds overcame Barcelona at the Nou Camp to reach the Champions League final, and then went on to beat Liverpool in the FA Cup final, Boris Johnston retained his position as London mayor, there was a once a year “super moon” oh and even the odd meteor shower thrown in for good measures but where do I even start to try describe today’s game and more importantly the post-match events that occurred at home to AFC Greenwich?

A few weeks ago AFC Greenwich fielded a youth team against The Buff, so naturally we made the necessary enquiries this week to ensure that lightning wouldn’t strike twice and they assured us they would be sending their Vets team down to Farrow fields and true to their word they did OK so there were maybe a couple of question marks about a couple of their players\' ages but one thing they hadn’t prepared us for was that one of their players was a laydeeeee, this had all the makings of a potential car crash!!

We welcomed back Jason Miller for today’s match and the management had even persuaded Dave Power to come out of retirement who arranged to arrive ready for the second half so the Farnborough Young Vets lined up as follows:

Gary Rosslee, GK
Danny Saines, LB
Paul Brett, CB
Andy Cobham, CB
Simon Hunt, RB
Rowan Foggitt, LM
Neil Connelly, CM
Matt Wright, CM
Jason Miller, RM
Paul Tanton, CF
Pete Harvey. CF

Sub,

Dave Power
Colin Brazier (emergency sub)

Farnborough kicked off on a drizzly grey morning and didn’t take long to break the deadlock as Jason Miller beat 2 men out on the right wing and then cut into the penalty box where he coolly finished with his left foot at the keeper\'s near post, 1-0 OBG’s. Soon after Farnborough nearly doubled their lead as Rowan Foggitt raced onto a neat through ball and deftly flicked the ball over the keeper with the outside of his right foot but the ball was always curling away from goal and therefore hit the upright and was cleared. Unfortunately that would be Rowan\'s last involvement of the game, as he had to come off with a suspected hamstring injury therefore a doubt for next week.

With Dave Power still en route to Farrow Fields Colin Brazier who was warming the touchline for the Senior Vets kindly agreed to help us out, so Danny Saines was pushed up to left midfield and Colin came in at left back. This now meant that the responsibility fell on Danny Saines’ shoulders to mark the Greenwich female player (and I must admit I have never seen him mark somebody so touch tight in the 3 years I have been playing with him).

What became apparent from our play was that Greenwich were very susceptible to a simple through ball down the middle of the Park as Paul Tanton gratefully found out when he raced on to a pass that many of us thought the keeper would be first to however Tant managed to get a toe to the ball before the onrushing Greenwich keeper to net Farnborough’s second, 2-0 OBG’s.

Farnborough’s 3rd goal that followed shortly after was literally a carbon copy of their second again a ball through the middle and Tant was on hand to finish one on one with the keeper, 3-0. Paul Tanton then delivered an excellent cross out on the left wing to our very own woman Pete Harvey who nodded the ball home to make the score 4-0 with no more than 30 minutes on the clock!

Greenwich did manage to mount a mini comeback in terms of possession and created a couple of openings, Rosslee was called into a save down at his near post and Colin Brazier was on hand to clear the ball off of the line from a header as a result of a Greenwich corner, I think it might have even been a header from the Greenwich laydeeeee player! Any chances Greenwich thought they might have had of getting back into the game were soon quashed however as Paul Tanton netted his 3rd of the game after a neat bit of ball juggling between the goalkeeper and himself, 5-0 OBG’s and Mr Gable\'s half time whistle echoed out.

The half time interval saw Dave Power introduced to the game as Danny Saines came off without his knowledge as he had actually gone to get the water bottles that somebody had forgotten to bring up at the start of the match, tut tut!!

Greenwich introduced a sub of their own up front, a man mountain of a man who was at least 6’ 5\" and 16st and he would soon figure in the match.

Paul Tanton was on hand to net his 4th and 5th of the match respectively the first tapping into an empty net after Simon Hunt had surged forward and tried his luck from 30 yards out, his drive hitting the bar unluckily but falling to Tanton to apply the finishing touches, and his 5th I must admit I can\'t remember, I think I was marking the Greenwich left winger!! 7-0 OBG’s.

Greenwich did muster a couple of second half efforts; the man mountain centre forward trying his luck from a direct free kick that Rosslee did well to get down low to and parry way and Andy Cobham made an excellent last ditch tackle when it seemed the Greenwich player had the goal at his mercy. Farnborough soon added yet another goal as Pete Harvey took a touch inside the box, created some space and found the top corner, 8-0 OBG’s.

Jason Miller who had run his socks off all game then added his second of the game with a thunderous effort from the edge of the box on the left that nestled nicely in the bottom right hand corner, 9-0 OBG’s. Miller was then on hand again to net his hat-trick and with undoubtedly the goal of the game. The ball was played out of the Farnborough half by the corner flag and involved at least 20 passes between the defence and midfield with Dave Power providing the final ball, although not perfect and it seemed destined to run out for a goal kick Jason Miller raced away and kept the ball in, he then proceeded to beat a couple of defenders and again slot the ball in with his left foot inside the keeper\'s near post, not too dissimilar to his first goal, 10-0 OBG’s.

With Pete Harvey on 2 goals he now had a glorious chance to get a his second hat of the season as Farnborough were awarded a penalty late on but unfortunately he missed, (second miss of the season) or “jug avoidance” as it\'s known in the game!

The ref blew for full time and put Greenwich out of their misery, and the players all shook hands, some players were even hoping that we might be able to swap shirts, ahem!

Apparently what followed after the match was a shower scene as memorable as the one from Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’ as the young laydeee from AFC Greenwich shared the showers with several embarrassed young & old Vets, I say apparently as I was not there at the time. No I was on my way back from Sainsbury\'s with some scented candles and rose petals just to make the occasion that little bit more special!

Today we exorcised the defeat to Cudham, we notched double figures for the second time this season, and we kept another clean sheet, oh and we got to see a woman in the showers, all in all not a bad day\'s work!!

Next week is our penultimate game of the season against stern opposition STC Sports, which I’m sure will be a very close contest.

MOM was very close with Jason Miller, Simon Hunt getting 3 votes each but Paul Tanton just edged it with 4 for his 5-goal haul.