A hard rain's gonna fall

Roll up, roll up, for another weekly round-up of all things Coram Fields. Two teams of nine this week, with Simon Ink’s unheralded appearance causing a late team selection headache. Here are your two line-ups

Yellows: Steve, Ian Gooner, Simon Gas, Nick, Danny, Ross, Paul, Peter and Patrick

Blues: me, Ian Baggies, Bristol Paul, Nick (bearded), Mick, James, Liam, Joe and Simon Ink

Liam got the scoring underway with a fine finish in treacherously greasy conditions – a fine rain fell throughout the majority of the game - and stabbed the ball home from an acute angle. The Yellows equalised when Patrick’s shot took an unwitting deflection off my ankle and deceived Nick in goal, which was to become something of a theme. I think that Liam pushed the Blues further ahead in what was a relatively low scoring game, before Joe looked to have applied the coup de grace by calmly prodding the ball high into the roof of the net from close range. He could, and perhaps should, have made it four when he found himself virtually unmarked in front of the Yellow team’s keeper, but over-elaborated and the Yellows managed to rally enough defenders and the chance was gone. Bristol Paul similarly had a tremendous chance to score having been adroitly set up by a deft header from Mick, but the tall Gashead struggled to keep his shot down.  

Then, with about three minutes to go, calamity struck, at least for the Blue team. First, a fiercely driven effort from Peter cannoned off of Nick’s heel and completely wrong-footed the goalie (me) and flew into the near post. 3-2.

Soon after, virtually from the kick off, a hoicked effort from the back sailed high into the early evening sky, met Nick’s attempted clearance and promptly pinged over my head and into the goal. I did get my index finger to the ball – a taller man may have done better – but all this achieved was to propel the ball downwards into the net and to cause my left index digit to swell up like a sausage.

Three all, and the final whistle sounded seconds later.

And onto the pub. A decent turnout this week, with Simon Gas, Steve, Ian, Mick, Paul ‘The Guvnor’ and Bristol Paul all making an appearance. Topics under discussion included: the top of the Championship, middle age health concerns, bicycle rides to the south coast and the match we’d just played.