Saturday 17 February 2007

One nil down, two one up...!

17th February 2007

Absolutely awesome game I have just returned from. Up against local rivals Shitbrook..oops I mean Shirebrook ;). There a funny team. They seem to have some sort of hold on us having beaten us twice out of three last season, both on our home ground and have beaten us this year too, also on our pitch. This was the second time we have played at there place, we won 1-0 last year in a dramatic game where the referee was in fact the parent of Shirebrooks manager and he did everything to give them the game.

I had done my research on them and found that even though they are in form and up near the top of the table, they don't score very many goals at all. I think there position in the league flatters them a lot. I was a little worried at the start when the manager asked for the ID cards as one of my new guys cards was at our club secretarys waiting to be picked up.

The other guy was ok about him playing as I assured him he was legit. I bet he wished he hadn't allowed him to play now! We started with defence in mind inviting Shirebrook to attack us and tire themselves out. The pitch was really large, in fact almost twice the size of ours so there was a lot of space. We hoped to ride their attack for the first half and hit them on the break in the second half so I saved 3 fast attacking players for then.

We didn't start too great and had already conceded a corner in the second minute but we rode it well. We looked a bit sloppy and unaware of what to do with all the space whereas Shirebrook where making the most of it, running into the space and playing long passes to each other and more or less tearing our defense apart. They grabbed a goal half way through the first half and how they didn't get any more is beyond me as there were many times my last defender found himself outnumbered but between him and our keeper we went in at half time 1-0 down.

I made 4 changes, using all my guys waiting on the bench. It sometimes feels unfair that I do it but I know if I don't bring them on soon enough I tend to forget about them and they end up having only a 10 minute match. We weren't playing too great anyway so things definately needed changing.

The second half went a lot better and we dominated it, using the space well and had a good few attacks. Our front two players linked up really well and our midfield was creating a lot for us. Half way through the second half we were still 1-0 down but were playing very well and it seamt like a matter of time before we got our equaliser. We had a free kick after our new guy took the piss out of one of their guys with a couple of stepovers before he was brought down. He is a good header of the ball so I was telling him to get in the box so our captain could send a ball in to the box but he looked a bit injured and not in a hurry to get in. It worked well as the ball was sent into the box only to be cleared by a defender to the feet of Ashley who hit an absolute beauty from about 20 yards out that arrowed into the top corner!! The keeper got a hand to it and even pushed it against the back post that joins to the corner of the goal making it look like it didn't go in but the ref was already putting his whistle to his mouth before our attacker smashed it in just to make sure!

There were only 6 minutes left when we equalised so I was happy to take the draw even though we deserved to win. I regrouped the lads and told them to keep there heads and see out the remainder of the match. We tok it to them in the last few minutes but was almost caught out when they broke and had a bit of a chance. We had everyone in the box when a cross came over and at one stage it looked like it was gonna go out for a corner but my skipper got there in time to hurl it upfield.

The Shirebrook gaffer was going crazy for a corner but the ref carried on, to our delight as the long ball was met by Joe Truman who slid it through to Jordan Hill who pounced on it and made it 2-1 to us!! We went crazy!! They had enough time to take the kick off, which deflected out for a throw in. It came near me and one of our parents who made a pretend effort to stop the ball rolling miles from the pitch but as it rolled past, the ref saw it would take a few seconds to fetch it and blew for full time!! Thus proceeded the moaning of the Shirebrook manager as I walked away whistling 'Always look on the bright side of life!'...:D

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