Match Report

Senior Vets un-done by παλιά μοσχαρίσια (Old Colfeians)

You might wonder about the bit of Greek in this match report. Well our chief correspondent was away on holiday in Greece; unfortunately, I couldn’t find anything closer to ‘Old Colfeians’ in Greek than the above, so it will have to do. I’m sure some of our players will think of alternate translations we could have used.

Our director of football (The Mighty Mick) was taken ill and was also not present, which left me & Manty to run (or ruin some might say) the team.

With our original opposition failing to get a pitch and all sorts of shenanigans during the week with myself their manager trying to get a replacement (even tried Norman Park), Mr Mullins came up from behind Meryl and dropped his load on us (OR έριξε το φορτίο του)  – a match against Old Colfeians and he played for them. Some suggested ‘Turn Coat’, Matt (our Team Clown) proposed he would take Danny out from any corners... I suggested he would need a step ladder.

On a more serious note: I wondered why Joe was running late for KO and found out that in order to get to our match on time, he had to ‘break into’ a cemetery to do some work he had promised to finish on the Sunday morning. It was the cemetery where his mum was buried. Tracey Mills-Skinner, a legend to Joe, she passed away 20 years ago...

FOBG Squad:  Matt Angelo, Waine Hetherington, Michael Hills, George Kleanthous, Colin Mant, Kypros Michael, Andy Osborne, Joe Skinner, Simon Thomas, Gordon Thompson, Giles Foister, Ian Coles and Ricky Young.

Kit sponsor: The Dog and Duck, Outwood

Supporters: Claire & Lorna Skinner, Hannah Kleanthous

Interim Chief Football Correspondent:  Phil ‘The Sniper’ Anthony

Interim Director of Football: Colin Mant 

The referee was dressed in a cricket jumper and brown shorts, a joke from Ricky a bit later in this report even made me laugh.

We started brightly and for the first 20, the game was pretty much even; or ακόμη και some might say in Greece.

Then they scored. A well worked goal, quick passes between their midfield and their 2 fast strikers and a shot that Matt had no chance to save. So 1-0 down, but this didn’t stop us playing our football. We just didn’t make that final pass to get that goal back.

On 30 mins, we gave away a free kick on the right, just outside our area. It was crossed in and a shot was brilliantly saved by Matt off the crossbar and upright, only for their striker to pounce and put us 2-0 down.

We then started to play better and attack more, a brilliant chip from Giles put Andy into their area and he looked up and slotted a very clever pass on a sixpence to Kyp who shot into the roof of the net; 2-1 and game on!!

A Kyp cross found Andy spare, but his header went over. Another fine pass from Giles found Andy and a bit of a better header would have put Kyp in on goal.

The referee seemed to play an extra 5 minutes in the first half and Andy’s joke ‘He’s played over’ seemed appropriate. Please someone tell him Pat and Sniper tell the jokes.

The second half got under way and after 10, they should have gone 3-1 up, a killer ball cut our defence in two and their striker with only Matt to beat (although Matt does stay up and stiff (και άκαμπτο), his shot flew high over the bar.

Then, our midfield maestro picked a shot out of the bag, from about 30 yards out, over the keeper and a possible goal of the season. 2-2 and we had them panicking now.

But alas, this is football (αυτό είναι το ποδόσφαιρο.). The referee awarded a penalty for handball. If we had VAR I’m not sure the decision would have stood – but they scored and we were behind again 3-2.

Matt had pulled off so many good saves and his performance deserved man of the match. I must have counted at least five world class saves!!!  Even the opposition were congratulating him...always centre stage this one!!!  However, he could do nothing against the further three goals they scored in the last 20 minutes. Even Mullins scored (after it deflected off Giles mind you). So a 6-2 finish probably flattered them really, but a good game of football. Some heated discussions near the end, but all forgotten now as we move on.

On a good note, Hannah was asked to find one of our footballs that went over the fence during our warm-up. Well done girl, you found it – Pat promises to tell you his Dog ‘Farting’ joke next time he sees you – the one he told my 3 daughters many years ago.

Man of the match: votes for Man of the match were close between Gordon, Matt and George, but our Duracell.Bunny got it by two with Mad Bunny Matt Angelo going 2^nd and Thumper Gordon 3^rd.

By the way - What do you get if you cross a bunny and a frog? A Ribbit...