Scorers: Brade, Demir
And the Lord (Bagley actually, but same thing) said unto me take your children from the grasp of Pharoah (Dave Mc) and lead them to the promised land….. well Hertfordshire. ”So let it be written so let it be done” Yul Brynner.
And so after much organisation we set out on the north London exodus. It wasn’t long before Liam was panicking as we travelled more than a mile from the nearest convenience store and Ben became twitchy as the last three storey building disappeared over the horizon to be replaced by trees and fields. We eventually arrived at RAF Halton to what was a lovely venue. Unfortunately the pitch was another half mile walk away, but having come this far it seemed a shame to turn back.
We set up with the Skips in goal minus gloves (like the good old days), Andy, Mike, Gary and Morruzi who thought it would be nice to make his monthly appearance in between weddings etc. Midfield was Liam, last week’s keeper Max, Karl who kindly made the journey from the fours and Jermaine. Ben filled the hole behind Ashley…….that sounds completely wrong, but hey.
We started the match really well and Fevzi and I were rubbing our hands in anticipation of a win as Icarus looked decidedly shaky. After some good passing and moving we looked good. Icarus were hastily hacking the ball clear at every opportunity. Alas we conceded two really sloppy goals with some poor defending which left Jimmy no gloves helpless. Both were avoidable big time. To compound matters we suddenly could not pass to save our lives, well we could actually but most of the time it was to the team in blue……Reminder to all, we play in ORANGE. Two up and Icarus looked like a proper team now with two or three of their guys dominating the play. We made it to half time and knew we had to give it a go early on.
Fevzi came on for Karl to play on the left. Once again we started well with Fevzi getting the passing going and Ash starting to batter their defence. Within five mins we had got one back when Ash drove at their defence and thumped an absolute rocket from twenty yards into the top corner. Alas we could not maintain the effort and slipped into old habits, mainly passing to the oppo. Also we lacked a desire to tackle and really get a grip of the game. They extended the lead with a fine strike from the edge of the area and this was followed by another excellent hit from wide which left the skips with no chance. At this point the game was up but Fevzi got a consolation goal with a great dribbling run into the area and a calm finish. So you reap what you sow and we sowed now’t so got now’t. At least there was no extra time so we could retreat to the safety of the city early to lick our wounds.
Sometimes you are beaten by a better side and we were. The frustrating thing is that the regulars among the team know we are better than what we gave on sat, which is why I did not have a tantrum because I knew that everyone realised that the performance was not really acceptable. Nevertheless credit to Icarus who seized on our lacklustre performance to impose their game on us. They just wanted it. Hard times indeed, so we must raise our game play as a team and use the large aperture in the lower part of your face, it’s there for a reason. Starting next week we need to get the season going so we may shake things up. No position is a given. The ball should be looked after, the forward eye of the needle pass is not always the best option. We are more than capable of passing through teams, we just need to take a deep breath and show a little composure. We need to be snappier in the tackle or at least make the oppo realise he cannot stand there with ball look up, weigh up the options then make a killer pass
Ending on a positive we played the occasional bit of decent football, which considering we had three new guys in the heart of the team was pretty good. Scored a couple of cracking goals. It is always hard when you do not have a specialist goalie as well, but Kurt did a fine job. I am not around next week so that’s probably a positive…….no comments please. Guys if you can come off the pitch satisfied that you have played the best you can then that’s fine, but if not, then expect a reckoning.
Hopefully next week we really can reach the Promised Land. Good luck guys.
