Welcome back to the Friday night football blog after a two
week lay-off. This month’s unseasonably mild weather – never mind what the pub
trade apparently call ‘Blackeye Friday’, this was more like Balmy Friday -
continued as Simon Gas organised and picked the sides for the final time in
2015. Here’s what the Muswell Hill Soccer Chieftain came up with, (despite
being beset with snot):
Blues: Mario, Alex, Sanhab, Danny, Liam, Andy (the Ulster
version), Mark, Simon Gas, Joseph
Yellows: specialist goalkeeper Ed, David, Yev, Alan, Mick,
Patrick, Ian Baggies, Steve, me
Despite committing the cardinal sin of putting Mario and
Alex on the same team, Simon managed to ensure that a decent – and even – game
of football ensued. There was slight issue with two large gaggles of young lads
congregating at the bottom and side of the pitch; the young scamps had been
able to enjoy a free kick around before 8.00 pm as there was no other side on
the pitch.
Although they cleared the pitch reasonably uneventfully, one
group in particular stuck around in a what you might call a passively
provocative stance, gently encroaching onto the field of play every couple of
minutes, with one youngster theatrically falling onto the astro turf until his
mates carried him off. Eventually the little bit of attention which they were
craving arrived in the form of a polite exhortation from Mick –“Boys, get off
the fucking pitch, please”, which saw them reluctantly traipse off into the
night whilst shouting back at anyone and everyone, so that they sounded exactly
like a flock of squawking parakeets.
Onto the goals, (the first one took around 20 minutes to
arrive). In trying to clear the ball upfield I inadvertently steered it
straight to Mario who took a touch to steady himself and then sent a fierce
drive past the otherwise excellent specialist goalkeeper Ed to make it 1-0 to
the Blues.
In a relatively low scoring game both Ed and his opposite
number, Simon Gas, made a series of splendid stops to deny Liam, Danny and Alex
on the one hand and Patrick and Yev on the other. Perhaps unsurprisingly with
both Danny and Alex playing in midfield for the Blues they enjoyed the lion’s
share of possession and this combination saw Danny swap passes before steering
the ball into the bottom far corner to make it 3-2 to the Blues – I believe
that Liam had grabbed the second Blues score after steering the ball through a
thicket of players.
At the other end the Yellows’ main threats came from the
filial duo of Patrick and Mick, with some decent support from the recovering
crock, Yev. The Kavanaghs were responsible for all three goals for the Yellows,
with Patrick scoring a sensational equaliser to Mario’s piledriver and Mick
flipping the ball over a phalanx of Yellows defenders before nudging the ball
past Simon in goal. That effort from Mick was the final goal of the evening and
we finished with a suitably festive, deep and crisp and even score of 3 – 3.
And so to the Skinners, where the ridiculously temperate
climate saw us drink outside until we realised that, equally unseasonably, the
pub was so quiet that there were tables (note the plural) going spare inside.
Discussions focused on gameshows past and present, the
merits of Challenge TV and
this clip from youtube. On the other table the night ended with a series of
impressions of the young squawkers responsible for the early drama and a round
of best wishes for the season. I understand that we return to action on Friday
8th January 2016 for a game of football and a fake Christmas buffet
in the Skinners.
Who said that January was a bleak month?
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