On possibly the hottest day of the year, we lined out against an older Norsemen outfit than we faced two weeks ago at Church St. Our pre match warm up pretty much consisted of lying in the grass drinking water, letting the sun warm us up as we all knew that it was going to be a tough 90 minutes!
We started brightly, dominating possession but were unable to get our foot on the ball and get a foot hold on the game. There were a few heavy tackles going in on both sides preventing the play from flowing. At that stage the referee seemed to be managing the game quite evenly. Jack opened the scoring midway through the first half with a good solo effort and we went in at half time 1-0 ahead. We should have had a much bigger advantage given that we had played with the advantage of the hill and Norsemen had the sun in their eyes.
The second half was an eye opener to all of us. After going 3-0 ahead with goals from Mel and Spencer, we were dominating all of the exchanges. The ref must have then decided that he was going to do all in his power to bring Norsemen back into it! They were awarded two of the most dubious penalties in a five minute spell that I have ever seen (and I’m not saying that because he gave one against me) to bring the game to 3-2. We responded well with a 4th after Mo set Craig clear with a clever long range clearance and he finished well. After another dubious free awarded to Norsemen, they managed to score one from play with a well finished goal and their only shot on target from play! With the introduction of Wayne and Rich, our fresh legs took over and we finished comfortably 6-3 winners after goals from Rich and Chirac.
Highlights of the game were the solid performance of the new centre half pairing of Sean and Derek, Derek’s shot which hit the cross bar in the first half from well inside our half and the positive manner in which the team is playing at the moment. So we won our first three points of the season and have won our second game in a row, both convincing wins. Lets hope that the momentum keeps on going!
Best for AP on the day were Mo, Jack, Sean and Derek and everybody who braved the October heat wave and represented AP 6’s on Saturday. We were lucky to have 14 on the day to keep a fresh attack at all times.
Team: Mo, Chirac Shah, Derek Graham, Sean Phelan, Mike Myers (Rich Bowhill), Olly Edge (Mel Loughnane), Anthony Shaw (Wayne Rose), Richard Fryer, Jack Dudmish, Craig Dawkins, Spencer Brooks.
