Match Reports
25/11/06
Worthing 3s 2-4 Men's 5th XI
The late afternoon sun at the end of Autumn is almost horizontal as shines across the Caribbean Sea where Captain Ramzy spent his Saturday afternoon !! It was a similar story in Brighton at the Astroturf pitches of Stanley Deason. The light is low and bright and reflects harshly off the surface. This is a fact not lost on any Brighton Captain or in our case Vice Captain Swampy and thus it was that we elected to play into the sun for the first half, safe in the knowledge that by mid-way through the second half the Worthing goalkeeper would struggle to make out his own players, much less the avalanche of shots that we would undoubtedly deluge him with. And thus it was.
After a first half where we enjoyed almost total dominance we went into half time one goal down, completely against the run of play, but quite in keeping with our season thus far. Our pressure had come through excellent combination play from the midfield, with Dicky, Tosh, Andrew and Dan all showing great first touches, vision and in Andrew and Dan’s case good pace. Unfortunately once into the final quarter of the field so often the cross was cut out as Worthing crowded their D. Up front James was playing with a back injury that made him almost anonymous and Will was showing the first touch of a love struck teenager, clumsy and obvious.
Then half time came and with it the advice that would change the shape of the game - Tosh told Will how to stop a ball and Will went out and did just that. Then he dribbled. Then he shot. Then he scored. 3 times. It was an amazing transformation from the first half, where before he’d been treading on the ball, letting it run by or kicking it, now he was poise and elegance, pace and power, dribbling round, through and over the Worthing defence - his first goal the result of run from half way, beating two players and drifting left before slotting his shot hard and low beneath the advancing ‘keeper. This levelled the game.
Five minutes later and Worthing were back in front having broken away on the right, with probably their best player on the day capping his afternoon with a scorching shot. The fact we conceded two goals does not do justice to the consistently outstanding performance of Matt (junior) in goal. There have been afternoons where if it hadn’t been for his athleticism and reactions we would have shipped double figures.
The disappointment was visible in everyone’s faces. The defence had worked hard when called upon, with College especially making some strong dangerous runs forward, Matt (senior) and Swampy had been so resolute in their tackling and hitting out, we deserved better.
From the push back we went at them again, and again the power of the midfield proved too much, again a strong run and finish from Will and we were level. This was only what we deserved.
Goal number 3 was probably the pick of the bunch. College had forced two sidelined hits deep in the Worthing half, both of which were played short with Tosh dribbling the ball through the first defender and winning another hit just outside the D.
The second hit was again played short to Tosh who unleashed what to the untrained eye would have looked like a wildly inaccurate lifted cross. It was of course a fantastically disguised shot that tore through the goal at just below waist height. The keeper didn’t stand a chance, not only because of the low sun, the sheer speed of the ball but also because he had advanced from his near post anticipating the cross that it looked likely was being delivered.
A couple of minutes later and Will crashed both ball defender and himself over the line and through the goal to round off his hat-trick.
This was another hard determined performance from the fifths. Each week we have been able to take something from the game but not the result. This week we took that result and it felt so good. The team wasn’t necessarily the strongest we’ve fielded and there were some people out of position (for example our new boy Andrew playing in the midfield,) or just out of sorts, (both Tim and James,) but we played as a team and carried on playing, not just with our hearts but with our heads, and we got the result we deserved.
Lastly a special mention and thank you to Wappy for his umpiring and for having the courage to reverse a decision based on where the bruise appeared on Swampy’s leg.