Of fair play and rare headed goals....

Apologies for the delay in posting this week's match report. I am writing this in my next door neighbour's house waiting to be reconnected to the main electricity having suffered a power cut last night (Tuesday). If I've forgotten any of the key points in the game it'll be because my head has gone numb with the cold.

Friday's match was an eight a side affair, which made for less exhausting work than last week's five a side effort. From memory the two teams lined us thusly:

Bibs: me (following a late swap), Boro Dave, Nick, Andy, Simon Gas, Paul, Sam, Danny

Colours: Joe, Steve A, Ross, Phil, the late Geoff, short Irish fella with a beard, Alan, AN Other

The Bibs surged into a seemingly unassailable 4-1 lead, with goals from Boro Dave (predictably), Danny (more of which anon), and Joe's mate Nick, who linked very effectively with the Teessider in the opening exchanges. That the colours ran out 5-4 winners was due in no small part to a bizarre goal that made it 4-2, which Simon Gas later confessed to allowing "because he felt sorry" for the Colours. A shot took a massive deflection which sent it skyward before falling like an air to surface missile into the bottom right hand corner of the goal. The new ruling of playing the ball over head height from corners and then from the subsequent second ball had seen a truly historic opening goal, as Danny leapt like the proverbial salmon to nod in Dave's corner to make it 1-0 on the Bibs. As Sir Trevor Brooking might say, a rare headed goal indeed.

 

 

The other stand out moment in the the match was what we might label the 'FIFA Fair Play' award (as sponsored by Tony), when Nick eschewed the chance to collect the ball in a near one on one situation to kick a neighbouring game's ball back onto the pitch next to ours. Boro Dave was not so appreciative of the Corinthian spirit, it should be noted.

The fourth and fifth goals from the Colours were both remarkable; the equaliser was an unlucky deflection off Sam which left Andy with little chance, while the winner was a scuffed effort from the diminutive bearded Irishman that could have easily been ruled out for a foul.

And so to the pub, which this week was The Flag and Lamb (or Lamb and Flag, I forget which). Lots of beers, archaic pub snacks and even scotch eggs were sold and consumed in a majestically wood panelled setting that could have easily have seen the formation of a teetotal socialist society or perhaps the formal coding of an unusual strain of rugby a century before. A bit too far from the tube station, mind.

Until Friday....