Scorers: Joseph Hinds, Rowan Lopez
Well, after one void game and two cancellations we were finally able to play the team with the silliest name in the league on a proper football pitch, with proper goals.
We may as well not have bothered!
With several changes forced on us by cry-offs we were back in the situation we had at the start of the season: potentially good players hamstrung by not knowing their positions or their team mates.
Kicking up hill in the first half we found ourselves 1 down very early on but, with the resolve that the 5s have shown through most of the league season, we got back into it. Twice. After going two one down we again pulled it back to two all, but disappointingly quickly conceded a third.
Although we seemed to have some good play, we were in our own half for long stretches and relied on breakaways for our attacks. Unfortunately Kurt was too isolated – first half injuries forcing us to play an unfit Mehmet as a second forward – so the ball was coming back.
The second half, when we were playing down hill and should have been able to impose ourselves, consisted mainly of goals and petulance by Sinjuns and a scrappy, disjointed performance by us.
A harsh penalty given against Aiden for accidental hand-ball widened the deficit early on. After that we were really chasing the game which left gaps for them to exploit. 4-2 became 6-2 by the end.
Ironically we did have chances, Rowan was able to show his pace and skill a couple of times, leaving 2 or 3 Sinjuns players in his dust and on another day we may have capitalised on his crosses. Joe worked hard on the right, but with him on the wing, we lost out on his ability in the centre. And three or four shots seemed to roll agonisingly wide of the goal.
In the midst of all this there were positives; the potentially makeshift defence all performed well and 6-2 does them no justice. Newcomer Danny made an assured debut at centre back and played equally well at right back after Aiden was replaced by Tony Bent.
So, that age old cliché, we can now concentrate on the league.
Two attempts at this game and two postponements have cost us 4 league games, leaving us in 8th place on 9 points from only 6 games. Norsemen are top with 21 points having played 10! So, win our four games in hand and we’re top! And on our league form we are more than capable of that.
Unfortunately a fixture on the Saturday before Christmas could mean a makeshift team again. Maybe poor weather this week will make our pitches unplayable!
