By George Waldrum
Alexandra Park 6s blew Norseman away thanks to spirited forward display and a solid defence. Highlights of the match were New boy Alex Booth’s goal, Frank Nally, managing to score after fifteen attempts from several AP players and Jack Sims lasting all of 30 minutes on debut.
On an expectedly hot afternoon the 6s rolled up to find the rules of the games had changed – literally. The controversial decision to allow rolling subs had the team’s opinion split. It ended up working out well this week and it’ll be interesting to see how it pans out of the season. Will Olly and Crofty utilise this to go off for fag breaks?…… will Jamie, Dimitar, Tom and Will use it to nip of to Nandos?….will Dan bring his life coach along and go off for advice every now and again?
To the match – for the first 30 mins AP bossed the game. Dominating in possession, competitive across the park and failing miserably to score. Kudos to the squad for creating so many chances but the amount of missed opportunities would have been punished by better teams. With that in mind it didn’t matter, AP were positive and strong – Parsons snapping away with Booth working tirelessly up front along with Olly Tolly and Nally. Nice passing led to shot after shot. White got in to some good positions but just couldn’t put it in, a couple of corners led to good chances too. All with no joy.
AP defence were good too, kept the chances limited and the reporter can’t recall any shots really of note from the oppo until very late in the half. Ditmar was a revelation at right back, Jack Sims defended well with some crunching tackles and Simon Tolcher showed the kids in the team how it’s done with a back flick tackle that proved he is still a rolls royce of a player. Will D had been his usual composed self before coming off with an undisclosed illness. The reporter believes he probably has a very minor STD. Get well soon Will. Dan came on for him and was usual solid self…..
Two thirds of the way in to the second half Jaime Roberts punched the ball out from a Norseman attack. Nally chased down the ball and finally made all the AP work count for something with what only can be described as the highest lob in history. The second AP goal came soon after with the move of the match – Booth turning his marker nicely opening up like a tin of beans and smashing in to the net. Jaime Roberts made a stunning save, probably the only shot on target from Norseman – it was 2–0 and half time.
Second half was a bit more difficult as AP were playing up hill. There were some nice moves going forward but not as many as first half. Parsons hit the bar and a couple of missed chances led to Nally and Knight debating whose miss was worse. That’s the spirit lads. Then the moment no one had been waiting for. A skilful throw in from Waldrum to Booth deep in Norseman half, led to Knight being gifted a tap In which he executed with aplomb. Norseman did push forward and whilst not really creating chances used the gradient of the pitch to put some pressure… which resulted in a goal. Too little too late. Ref blew up and it was 3-1 to AP. Fantastic start to the season.
MOM Ditmar as his own words on twitter “My new position at rwb swear down I got that on lock” (NB Dan if you don’t understand this go to the urban dictionary and look up the phrases)
