Last Friday saw a homage to the black arts of defending!!

I am afraid to say that last Friday saw some blatant time wasting by Tone and Spizz in goal!! We were 3-1 up and playing into the sun. There was no excuse for the dark arts of defending. Maybe we should start giving penalties against the goalie? For them, Alan Morg. hit the post twice with consecutive shots while Dave A. blasted against the post with one of his howitzers. We were on the ropes but that does not condone time wasting.

During the first half we raced to a 3-0 lead with some crisp passing and goals from Spizz, Tone and Baggies Ian. Despite some strong play by Alan Morg. Dave A. Geoff and Big Sam the opposition were unable to score during the first half. Spizz could have wrapped up the game at 4-0 but somehow chipped onto the bar. With our switch into the sun somehow our goal threat fizzled out. Tone spent more time in goal due to a slight injury problem. After I lost the ball Big Goughie slotted the ball for them from a pretty central position. Then, came the shameful time wasting.

The teams were six-a-side with me, Gashead Simon, Baggies Ian, Danny, Tone and Spizz. We could have easily lost to Big Dave, Big Sam, Alan Morg. Gooner Simon, Geoff and Goughie, who just kept hitting the post. Unfortunately, Blades Andy and Mick K. could not make it at the last moment.

This Friday the plan is to start at 6.45 so we can get in a bit of the England v Algeria game. It was a pretty terrible start against the USA with all the obvious problems rearing their ugly head. On the plus side I thought Stevie G, Lennon and Johnson did really well. It was a shame that Heskey did not take his gold-plated chance but that is the reason he does not make the Aston Villa first team. The mistake by Green was just one of those things. At least we did not lose. I remember Ray Clemence doing something similar at Spurs against one of the big Spanish teams (Barca or Real Madrid) and there was no coming back.

Big Dave marshalls a 3-0 shut-out for us.

With an unprecendented eight-a-side, Big Dave marshalled a 3-0 shut-out for us. There were reappearances from Will for us and from Phil B. for them. Ever-present Spizz was absent last Friday as he was to warble in Bologna (Italy) on the Saturday night.
Their side had pacey players in Ross, Alex and Henry but they were kept being pushed back by our well-organised defence. Will got our first goal followed by Tone and Big Sam. The Tone shot seemed to fly past a despairing dive by Gashead in goal. Big Sam played a "Mascherano" role in front of our defence while Alan Morg. had a good game for us.
On their team confidence seemed to ebb away following the first goal. Ian Goughie sacrificed his natural attacking inclinations to play back while Phil B. showed some rare pieces of skill with his sweet left foot.
In the pub Sheffield Andy got talking about a football tour of Sheffield. It is early days yet and it is not as glamorous as France or Germany but we could be going as long as the opposition is not too intimidating.

After a break I returned to the fray!!

I had to go to a quiz night recently but I was back in the thick of things last Friday. Again, it was an eight-a-side match but both teams played a good passing game. Unfortunately, I had a senior moment and did'nt remember that Henry scored a goal for us when I was telling his cousin Ross in the pub about his lack of composure in front of goal. Sorry about that!
The main event of the evening was the celebration of Simon Gashead's 50th birthday. His brother-in-law Andy organised the present, which was a Bristol Rovers shirt, and with our drinks in the pub we had a buffet. The game itself was a wet affair but at least the local kids did not throw crackers on the pitch as sometimes happen around November 5th. We were losing 3-0 but then changed the teams swapping our big centre forward Goughie for Alan Morg., who had scored one of their goals. Spizz got the first goal of the night with a shot, which saw the ball nestling in the corner of the net.
We managed to claw back two goals but in the end we lost 3-2. Their defence was well-marshalled by Mick K., who was gingerly coming back from a knee injury. I was playing right back and had to face a resurgent Geoff P., who has started to play a quicker passing game. He used to be well-known for mazzy dribbles, which went down blind alleys. Our defence was held together by Big Dave, while his brother Steve stayed in goal for the opposing side due to his first match back after a knee
injury.
Until recently I was the only 50 plus player but now we have got three with me, Gashead and Spizz himself. Tone reaches this milestone on Christmas Day and so we are giving a lot of years when we play against young eighteen year old Sam, who sometimes helps us out if we are down on numbers. Last week Tone played excellently for a spell and then just stayed back saying that he was knackered.
In the pub Spizz revealed that he was enjoying learning a bit of Italian and the group will be playing a gig in Bologna soon.

Last week was the last match before the summer break.

Last Friday was the last game before our summer break. We reconvene in September.
I will be at a bit of a loss on Friday nights. Spizz told me off for putting down
three rather than four goals for his haul the previous week. I promised to correct this oversight.
Quite a bit of effort was taken in picking the sides so that they would not be too unbalanced. However, Big Sam was nursing a hamstring injury and had to go in goal for them. Despite this the game was
evenly matched for a long time. Spizz's side took the lead with a longish range shot
from Alan. Then, we got back into it with a great shot from Mick K., which went in
off the post to square it at one all. Alan, Tone and Big Dave were keeping them in it while we benefitted from the defensive organisation of Mick K.
I was playing very defensively keeping an eye on Sheffield Andy, then somehow I got away on the right wing. The play had opened up. If I could cross the ball to Ross past Tone then he could score. Amazingly, this happened but for an agonising moment I thought Ross had not got control of the ball. This gave us a merited 2-1 win and for the first time in many weeks Spizz had not scored a goal.
Afterwards, I asked Cliff about playing in their game over the summer and I got some waffle about numbers, so I think that was a no. I will be looking to build up my fitness over the summer and looking forward to Spizz's concert in September.
In the pub afterwards we named Ross as the most improved player, although he did come up with the controversial proposal to ban penalties, so as to avoid the petty arguments. I told him I liked the petty arguments!!
Arsenal Simon treated us to a short to celebrate his forthcoming nuptials. The proceedings were livened up when a shapely blonde identified herself to Tone and Gasman as a fellow Bristol Rovers following their earlier Gashead chants in the pub.