Match Report

FOBG Squad: Tom Girling, Michael Hills, Phil Anthony, Colin Mant, Giles Foister, Waine Hetherington, George Kleanthous, Joe Skinner, Simon Thomas, Peter Harvey, Jay Hardy, Kypros Michael, Dave Morgan, Andy Ashe

Referee: Paul Parsons – 10/10

Kit sponsor: The Dog and Duck, Outwood.

Manager:  George Kleanthous.

Interim Chief Football Correspondent:  Phil Anthony.

Chief Impact Officer:  Phil Anthony.

We welcomed ‘Wellcome Super Vets’ to our home ground on Sunday 7^th November. The sun was shining and it looked like a good day for a game of football; however, we noticed that the pitch was heavy especially down the channels. Maybe that heaviness affected a few players' minds, who believed the kickoff had been moved to 11:00 and hence turned up slightly late. This left George with his plan B (or was it plan Z?) - play the oldest player at right back (Sniper) and start Andy, who had just come back from injury. Please remember - Sunday KO's are always 10:30, unless George or Phil tell you otherwise. Our website is also kept up to date.

Recent matches against Wellcome have not gone our way - season 20/21 we lost both our matches (3-6 & 5-12), but they did admit that they had brought in two young strikers, who had made an immediate impact. Previous seasons have been fairly even; season 19/20 we drew 3-3 and won 6-3, season 18/19 we won 6-4.

Wellcome’s front line were fit, fast and technical and with a slightly under strength starting line-up, this could be the reason why we went 2-0 down in the first 30 minutes. Their first goal was very unlucky for us, as their striker shot from close range, Tom saved it with his right hand I think, but it landed in our net; some might say he needs to strengthen his right hand with some sort of rigorous exercise; Tom – please speak to Manty for more advice. Their second goal was a penalty, given for ‘hand ball’ preventing a goalscoring opportunity. The first half ended 0-2 and we all agreed that this was the first time an opposition were pressing us, rather than the other way around. This meant some of our passing was going adrift, our communication was lacking and we were giving the ball away. Our half-time team talk and a change of line up fixed this.

We therefore started the second half on the front foot, we pressed Wellcome, their heads dropped, they lacked composure, gave the ball away and they started arguing amongst each other. We dominated the second half, played our football and found a way back into the match, with two lovely goals from Kyp, the first a chip over the keeper, assisted by Peter and the second a dribble round the keeper, assisted by an absolute sliderule defence splitting pass from Waine. At 2-2, we would have been satisfied, but we kept going and Kyp got his hat-trick, which he described as a "Diving header", assisted by a lovely cross to the back post from Jay.

Wellcome did play their part in a good entertaining end-to-end game and they unfortunately managed to claw a goal back with the very last kick of the match, a corner lofted over our defenders landing on their big centre midfielder's left foot and it curled into the top corner.

We probably should have won this match as again, we created many chances that we should have put away, but football is football. We even had to play the last 20 minutes with 10 men, as 2 yellow cards were shown, both deserved by the letter of the law, and we lost our centre half.

The club funds provided food after the match, 50 filled rolls, cheese, tuna and ham, with some sausage rolls and small pasties. We need a volunteer to be ‘Front of House’ to make sure our opposition have a great experience. We need someone in hospitality – any volunteers?

We look forward to next week’s match at home against CUACO and kickoff is planned for 11:05 – PLEASE NOTE THIS AND I’LL PLACE THIS ON OUR WHATSAPP CHANNEL.

Man-of-the-match:  Votes were shared between our hat-trick hero Kyp and Peter who had a great game on the left side of midfield and THEN looked very comfortable in the centre of the back four with 20 minutes to go.