Match Report

Wellcome Super Vets undone by a strong FOBG side

It’s always an interesting match against Wellcome Super Vets and just like our Senior Vets team struggle to get a team out, they also suffered today. We only had 10 players Saturday morning and between Phil & George over 30 other potential players were contacted but no-one was available. Waine managed to get his brother-in-law to play, Sniper came out of isolation and declared himself fit after 30 minutes playing for his Saturday team the day before. We eventually got 14 players on Sunday morning.

Previous matches against Wellcome was evidence that this could be a tough game, last month we drew 3-3 and last season we lost 3-6 and 5-12. So being short of numbers was worrying, but little did we know that Wellcome had lost their big midfield playmaker, their regular keeper and their other striker.

The pitch was superb as usual even after all the recent rain, but we were playing on the smaller pitch today, which was of concern to George who had to re-think some of his strategy.

FOBG Squad: Tom Girling (GK), Colin Mant, Waine Hetherington, Peter Harvey, George Kleanthous, Sinisa Gracanin, Jay Hardy, Simon Thomas, Barry Grainger, Joe Skinner, Dan Herbert, Diccon, Richard Patterson, Phil Anthony.

Referee: Their manager Kevin – 10/10. Managed the game well, even after some of our players were constantly giving him grief. We must learn to leave the officials alone; yes, they will make mistakes, but seriously guys, this is Vets football, please cut this out. Sniper apologised to Kevin after the match and texted him Sunday evening. He was fine and said that these things happen. He also said we had a great team; a great bunch of lads and he’s already looking forward to playing us next season.

Kit sponsor: The Dog and Duck, Outwood.

Manager:  George Kleanthous.

Interim Chief Football Correspondent:  Phil Anthony.

We again struggled to get a team out for this week’s match, a mixture of injures and unavailability. It is without doubt that the best players to bring into the squad are ones that are known by our existing players, so the ask is to spread the word. We only have a core of 13 players so if this continues, we will always struggle to get a team out. Nonetheless, the 14 we had today, were considered a strong side by George, who maintains that the style of play he has implemented will see us through. The small pitch was of concern, so with this lack of space, if the defence couldn’t see that pass, then the message was to hit the channels with those long balls to help the team reset. Also, the message was to see how the opposition play, if they press us, again hit the channels and reset, otherwise play our football.

The first 10 minutes of any match are always the most important, because this normally sets the scene for how the game pans out. So, to go down 1-0 very early was not what we expected or what we wanted. Their young striker, who has scored some really good goals against us, picked up the ball in our half and weaved his way into our area, shot and Tom dived superbly, but unfortunately it cannoned off his inner thigh (which had been very well lubricated with Heat Rub) and went into the net. Tom, next time, less lubrication please!!!

However, the style of football implemented by George pulls us through, even after a bad start. By half-time we were 4-1 up. Diccon had his best game for us, constantly picking up the ball and either driving at their defence or playing an intelligent pass; his efforts were rewarded with two very good goals; however, he did ask to be substituted after about 25 minutes, with a stitch, which is evidence of the amount of leg work he put in. A superb goal from Peter, who from outside the area, chested the ball down onto his trusted left foot and hit a piledriver into the net. Then a fantastic corner from Simon which our ginger striker Jay thumped in with a header. A huge benefit in today’s game was the penetration and inch-perfect passing down our left channel from Barry.  He mixed up his passing with neat flicks, down the line and some excellent cross-pitch passes. Waine also brought the days back when he was spreading passes round the pitch and when he is given the space, he’ll do this all day, cutting defences in half.

Our back four of Simon, Manty, Sini and Richard were solid and working with Tom, played the ball out from defence to cut their midfield to pieces. Dan Herbert and Joe came on and both had good games, Dan getting another goal to add to his tally. Jay was showing off his new FitBit and I think he clocked up 6 kms, but the rumour was that this included the walk to his car, his hand movements in the car and other hand motions that I cannot possibly mention in this report.

The second half continued as the first, we pressed and passed and challenged and won all those loose balls. We won the headers, won the 50-50 tackles, we passed the ball around really well and cut them to pieces. George put away his penalty easily, Peter hacked down from behind as usual. We did give the referee a lot of grief, which we really must cut out. If you have a gripe speak first to George your player/manager!! However, please read on …. 

The talk of the match was a penalty given to their young guy who came on in the second half. Now, he was a good player and did add a threat to their attacks, but we closed him down quite efficiently with our pressing. Unfortunately, whilst weaving around in our area, according to the referee, he was apparently brought down by our battery bunny George, who as usual had run his socks off all game. If VAR had been present, this would surely have given us more visibility, but George insisted that the guy cheated, made his point to the referee and the player, not once, not twice, not even three times, but a barrage of complaints repeatedly, until he was escorted off the pitch. I believe the barrage continued from the sideline and after the final whistle and in the changing room. In fact, a hand bump with the player was ignored by George until he got an apology, but all George got was a ‘wink’ which we interpreted as either "Yes mate, I cheated" OR "Hey, I really fancy you, fancy going out for a drink sometime?".

According to the laws of the game, a penalty kick is awarded if a player commits a direct free kick offence inside their penalty area or off the field as part of play as outlined in Laws 12 and 13. A goal may be scored directly from a penalty kick. So it’s possible that George gave away 2 penalties, on and off the field. However, an anonymous vote in the bar, concluded that the penalty was correctly given by the referee, but George was not around to contest this, so this has been left for now. We hope that the Kleanthous household did not witness any further abuse of the referee or the player, but that is behind their closed doors and we will never know how deeply George has been affected by this. The club have an account with an Anger Management Consultancy and would be willing to pay for both Tom and George to attend; we may in fact get a discount. Tom, George, some anger management quotes for you to think about prior to your course -

• "It is wise to direct your anger towards problems - not people; to focus your energies on answers - not excuses." - William Arthur Ward.


• "Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be." - Thomas Kempis.


• "Anger blows out the lamp of the mind." - Robert G. Ingersoll.


• "For every minute you are angry, you lose 60 seconds of happiness." - Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Man of the match votes were not that spread this week, Manty and Waine got 3 apiece, but it fell to our two goal hero Diccon who got five votes. He totally deserved this for his overall contribution to the game.