Arriving at Southgate we were greeted with the Broomfield approach to putting up the net. This involved one member of the team inching their way across the crossbar in an approach that would not be out of place in an army training camp. This display of athletic ability was then translated onto the pitch as the Broomfield team demonstrated a style of passing and keeping the ball that had not been seen since the Spurs double team of 1961. The reason I know this is because the Ref told me and he was old enough to have seen them play in real life. Unfortunately the years had taken their toll and his movement was restricted to a circle within a circle.
Decisions were random to say the least and with two games going on around us we weren’t quite sure what game he was in fact watching as the thickness of the glass in his glasses was in fact too dense to see through from our side, wasn’t sure what he could see from his side. Anyway it was the same for both teams and made playing offside seem like a modern day version of Russian roulette.
Tyronne stepped up to the plate to play in goal and pulled off some great saves. We had a chance when our new double barrelled boy (“dbb”) had a first time shot from fully 35 yards with the keeper off his line. Tremendous effort but just wide. They took the lead with a ball over the top and continued to press.
We started to exert more pressure and pass to each other, this soon bought a result as “dbb” finished superbly after a sweeping move. The game then went from one end to the next but it was Broomfield who got the next and made it to half time 2-1 up. A couple of changes saw Arron going up front and Torq coming back into the centre of midfield. We started playing higher up the pitch at the suggestion of € (something useful finally from the continent ) and we were starting to get on top . Another great ball and “dbb” with the help of the hand of God (can’t believe the Ref missed it) saw us level the scores .
There was really only one team in it and a great 10 minutes from AP saw us come close to taking the lead. But it wasn’t to be and a 25 yard rocket saw them take the lead , hope started to fade and the quickness and passing movements of their forwards and midfielders saw us under constant pressure and they scored a couple of late goals. Fitness counts even in the 5th division. Great performances from Stephen and Olly at the back while Ewan gave a masterclass of playing centre mid and “dbb” showed that he is going to score a lot of goals this season. Let’s aim to lose our title of ” the only AP team with no points” next week.
