Last Friday’s game saw us with just seven players aside,
including the roving Merv, leading Simon Gas to recruit two ringers from one of
the other games that concluded at seven ‘o’ clock. This resulted in the
following two teams:
Yellow: Ian Baggies, Bert (welcome back!), Merv, Simon Ink,
Tony, Joe and Alan
Blues: me, Simon Gas, Kanat, Bristol Paul, Mick, Ramone and
Johnny
The two extras were a chap called Dean, who has ploughed a
furrow with us before, and a young fella whose name I didn’t catch. When Merv
withdrew with a hamstring injury after 15 minutes or so he was replaced with a
young lad who was all of around five foot and at this point the teams were
arguably unbalanced, although it is always a suspicion of mine that some of the
young ringers that join us on occasions like this are playing somewhat within
themselves.
Onto the goals, then. Mick capped what was unquestionably a
man of the match performance with four goals, (albeit one of them was possibly
an own goal from Ian Baggies, who also had the misfortune to put through his
own net to start the scoring). The pick of Mick’s super-plus hat-trick was a
tight angle finish from wide on the right that caught out both the keeper and
the last defender and a lovely lofted pass into the top right hand corer that
was reminiscent of an Andrea Pirlo or Andres Iniesta. Ole!
But the Blues didn’t have it all their own way and the
Yellows managed three goals (?) with both Tony and Joe making their mark, the
former pouncing on some loose work in midfield to drive unerringly into the
bottom corner. Ultimately, the calibre of the Blues’ random selection (Dean)
was, in tandem with Ramone’s ceaseless running and ball-recycling, too much for
the Yellows who gamely endeavoured to try and make a game of it. Simon Gas
switched with the diminutive winger for the final 15 minutes or so, but it made
no difference whatsoever.
Final score: Blues 6 Yellows 3
No pub for me this week as I had a child’s birthday party to
prepare for; I’m off for a couple of weeks, so see you all on 21st
June.
