Match Report

Nifty Seniors knock in nine as Albion are smashed

A brief report this week due to computer issues at home. My hard drive has failed on my laptop and is going off to see if any files can be recovered. If they can, I’m sure the said hard drive will be sent for further analysis to the Metropolitan Police!

This week we were on ‘neutral’ ground at Norman Park, with the weather conditions somewhat icy. At 10am no opposition had appeared and it looked like we may be being stood up, but a phone call from Mr O’Flynn to the opposition's manager assured us that 12 souls would be there from Crofton – Compo not included it turned out. Once nets were attached to goals (well done those that chipped in), we lined up as follows:

Rob;
Mick, Lionel, Colesy, Manty;
Simon, Jay, Danny, Martin;
Pete, George.

Subs: Obi, Michael, Steve.

Subs were made around midway through each half but don’t ask in what order. Everyone got a game!

The first half was predominantly us going towards their goal and they were reliant on a mobile front pair (one of which was familiar to me as a fellow Wimbledon fan) to hit us on the break. Rob had to be vigilant and performed well when needed, with good handling and swiftly coming off his line to sweep up danger. About 25 minutes in Pete opened the scoring with a composed finish. They were defending resolutely and one chance was hooked off the line from Obi’s header at one of our corners. Simon put us two up and we could have had it wrapped up by half-time, but a ball over the top was pounced on by their striker and this time he poked it past Rob to keep them in touch. At 2-1 there was work to do second half.

Shortly after the restart the game was swiftly ended as a contest. A hat-trick within 10-minutes for George floored them as he pounced on their indecision and errors at the back. Michael then got on the scoresheet, Simon took advantage of another defensive error and Michael sealed his brace with a fine finish into the roof of the net. Peter started the scoring and ended it with a finish into the corner for a comfortable (on paper) win. It is worth noting that Simon had two further goals disallowed by the linesman. Our referee, Alpesh, had a solid debut game and took no lip.

Crofton had their moments but by their own admission were weakened by absence. They’ll look forward to meeting again to give a more testing account of themselves. That said we ruthlessly exploited this. Four of us made it back to the club where all games had been postponed due to the weather. It was here that we noted down those who scored and when, but if this account differs from what others recall I apologise in advance! It’s not every day we score nine!

With votes split between several players, in the absence of a match ball for his hat-trick, George took pride of place for man of the match.