We entertained the league leaders at a sunny but very muddy Albert Road last Saturday. For the opening 45 minutes, we matched them for skill, ability, fitness and movement and were unlucky not to be one up at half time thanks to a couple of superb saves from the OP keeper to deny John Scantlebury and Chirac’s efforts. Luckily for Old Parks, the half time whistle sounded to put an end to our period of dominance, and unluckily for us as we were definitely looking the better side and were waiting for our goal to come.
My memory of the second half is not very clear apart from a few chances which we created from long throws into the OP area. Scants and Tom White were unlucky to have a couple of efforts blocked. Old Parks probably had two good chances in the second half and scored from one. We battled to get back level but could not breach the Old Parks goal. The other was excellently blocked on the line by James Goodrum. Old Parks celebrated on the final whistle as they knew that a difficult three points had been secured. It was the only consolation that we could take after playing so well for 90 minutes. The ref did issue a straight red card to one of the OP players for dissent following a harsh challenge.
This Saturday we welcome our neighbours Crouch End Vamps to hopefully get revenge from our last meeting. Three points are needed to remain competitive in the top half of the table where this team belongs.
Team: Jason Smith, Chirac Shah, Derek Graham, James Goodrum, Mike Myers (Darren Tullett), Ditmir Sulemanji (Robert Blade), John Scantlebury, Richard Fryer, Jack Dudmish, Tom White, Alex Tabram.
