If Britain can’t cope with cold weather we can…
After last week’s frustrating result at Vamps, I was hoping for a stress free trip to Old Parks and when by Friday evening five of AP’s games had already being cancelled due to frozen grounds, I wasn’t too worried that I still only had 10 players, there would be plenty of people desperate for a game and if anything, surely our match would follow suit anyway.
Well Saturday morning came and so the dreaded texts too “8s & 2s games off, 7s on, bring your moulded” and with another two earlier cry-off and down to 8, I was the one desperate now. With a minimum of seventy seven players to call from, it should had been easy but few phone calls later only three players were available at such short notice to make up a starting 11, Bagley (I think he secretly wants to play in the 7s), plus 2 on the condition that they got a lift and played up front together, duly granted.
With them two having spent Friday night celebrating some friend’s 30th birthday till the early hours (Matt only slept 45 minutes), it was no surprise that my car smelled like a brewery, with Matt only contribution to the conversation through the journey being: “I need some meat”, which mind you, even after stopping to a café for an hangover cure bacon sandwich, his face still looked as grey as Fairlop winter sky.
We got there with an hour to spare which we spend most of it in the warm changing room, twelve of us actually, as Kennedy who originally cried off miraculously recovered and by the time we stepped outside for a quick warm up, Dale Small was making his way from AP, lucky 13? We kicked off and for a little while nothing much happened as both team were getting used to the treacherous conditions, really hard ground with patches of slippery grass, but we settled and started to be a bit more direct, by that I mean long ball to Matt and Andy but no end product.
Second half followed with a bit more urgency, Darren and Wayne swapping flank paid off almost instantly with Darren slick pass to the right for Andy to coolly lob the keeper from an angle, 1-0. Soon after (I’m not sure if it was corner or a cross) the ball felt to Matt for him to volley into goal (if only we had a video…) 2-0. It wasn’t plain sailing after that as Old Parks were putting us under pressure too and that paid off from a cross to their striker, 2-1. James and Dale came on for the last thirty, as both teams battled it out till the end with the last chance of the match falling to OP for Manuel to put a great save. A great team result where everybody worked really hard in difficult conditions, with special mention for Ricardo in his best game so far this season, Andy with his leadership kept us organised and to all the others for some great work.
Team: M. Veth(GK), C. Manning(RB), N. Bagley(CB), L. Caudebec(CB), S. Payne(LB), W. Rose(RM), R. Bowhill(CM), R. Kirton(CM), D. Tullet(LM), Matt. (CF), Andy. (CF)
Sub: J. Kennedy(LM) and D. Small(LB)
