Are you playing Manchester City?

Blog number two of the 2018/19 campaign coming up now, with two very different fixtures to report on. Friday 12^th October saw a poor game blighted by tardiness and other personnel issues that resulted in a one-sided gubbing. For the record, here were the two teams:

Yellows: Danny, Bristol Paul, Patrick C, me, Andy, Mario, Nick and Patrick (K)

Blues: Paul, Simon Gas, James, Ian Gooner, Yev, Mick, Peter and Joe

I believe that Yev ended up playing for the Yellow team because Peter and Joe were both late and were given Patrick C to compensate and the whole thing was very unsatisfactory with a final score of around 6-1. Mario and Patrick always make a potent strike force and it all got a bit much.

Conversely, last Friday’s game was, by happy common consent, one of our best for some time. There was a bizarre moment just before the game when a bloke walked in to the changing rooms with a wry grin and asked if we were about to play Manchester City; thankfully, the answer was ‘no’, although I reckon we’d have a chance if we deployed Steve as Raheem Sterling’s marker (not really). I think he was confusing us with one of the league teams that plays in a recognised team’s colours, but perhaps the question inspired us to raise the standard of play from the norm.

Here are your teams:

Yellows: Paul, Bert, James, me, Sebastian (James’ cousin), Charlie, Tony, Liam and Simon Gas

Blues: David, Joe, Ed, Shez, Peter, Danny and Yev

Joe’s late arrival owing to problems on the tube meant that he joined the Blue team, even though he was supposed to be a Yellow, leading Simon Gas to selflessly change bibs and join the Yellows, who had the weaker line-up. It shows the fine margins we live with really, because had he not done so it would be a one-sided riot of the game, but happily it was all right on the night.

A word about Sebastian, first – we’d first assumed that given the posh moniker some floppy haired fop would turn up clutching a teddy bear, but Sebastian turned out to be a fleet-footed Colombian dynamo, recycling possession and driving into pockets of space to free up his team-mates. How wrong we were!

The Blue team prevailed by three goals to one, (so, a relatively low scoring game). Their first arrived after a ball eluded all Yellows defenders and arrived at the back post for someone to steer past James; the second was an absolute gift / howler from me, as I attempted to take a backpass from Simon Gas on my instep and ping it wide to the full back on the right side of defence, but succeeded in merely pushing the ball straight to Yev who tapped into an open goal from about five yards; the third and final goal of the game was a good finish from young Ed who nipped in ahead of the keeper and squeezed the ball in from an acute angle.

All that aside, the Yellows had plenty of possession and pinged the ball around with what at times could be genuinely described as panache, with Bert and Tony making the ball do all the work at the back and James linking up well with his cousin in midfield, neither of whom deserved to lose. A bit of a thin game for Liam, who was feeding on scraps for all the Yellow possession, although he did get on the scoresheet following an uncharacteristic brain fade from Joe.

Immediately prior to Ed’s winning goal I took a corner that got cleared back out wide, so I smashed it hopefully back into the middle of the area and it fell to Sebastian who unleashed a venomous volley that careered back of the post and that just about summed up the Yellow performance. Well done to the Blues, who mopped up the pressure well and took their chances. And well done to Yev, who not only washed the bibs, but arrived early. Fancy that.

Mercifully, there was relatively little drama to mar proceedings and a game well worth eight quid.

Onto the pub, where just a few of us made it past half eight – Yev, me, Tony, Simon Gas and Paul. 

Topics under discussion included Tottenham’s new stadium and Harvey Weinstein before the evening became an impromptu smartphone workshop as we struggled and failed to download WhatsApp onto Paul’s phone.

See you Friday…