Match Reports
07/02/09
Worthing 4s 0-7 Men's 4th XI
It was a very early start for everyone, not least for me as the usually dependent Perry had to pull out at 7am, which meant some feverish texting to round up a stand in and rearrange the cars before our 10am start in Worthing.
We also had a new player in the shape of a young springbok called Smithy….hang-on..i know that name! Isn’t it amazing what a new haircut can do. The freshly shorn Smithy was barely recognisable as Eddie from Coronation Street. His “interview” cut was quite a change. I still can’t understand why he didn’t go for a mullet! Business at the front, party at the back!
We may have to buy him a wig for next week’s game, it just didn’t look right.
With the pitch, well let’s be honest, frozen hard, it was touch and go whether the game should go ahead. But with an already congested fixture card we decided to press on and but for a few slips wasn’t as bad as perhaps we feared.
Worthing, who were on the wrong end of an 11-1 spanking earlier in the season, looked a lot stronger this time and had some real mettle down the centre of the team.
That said it was a familiar 4s line up and this growing familiarity and team spirit meant that the speed of thought and deed was much faster than Worthing could muster. The skiddy pitch may have also assisted us more in the passing department.
We found our feet quickly and darted into the lead. JC was on fire, and in a similar manner to the last time we met Worthing, scored an astonishing (and modest) first half hat-trick. He was also able to rise up the non-existent assists table and help Tosh to only his second goal of the season for the 4s by touching in powerful shot/cross/thing.
Davros was also able to continue his rich vein of form and score his 13th and 14th for the season (for the 4s) during the match.
There was a short period of disruption as the goal-less Wrighty went in search of glory and found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was felled by a blow to the head which left him with a nasty gash above his eye with a decent amount of blood pouring out of it. Tosh, usually keen to involve himself in these matters being a professional seemed to disappear, and it was left to the Florence Nightingale of Worthing to come to Wrighty’s aid and patch him up. Wrighty asked whether he looked hard, he was safely advised that if he was stood up rather than lying on the floor he would like a lot tougher! Not sure if the right question had been answered though to be honest….
We were briefly down to ten for a matter of seconds as our knight from Lancing in his shining armour arrived in the nick of time. A little more shuffling required in the line up and normal service was resumed with Grimes spraying the ball around in his usual style. Almost too good as the old fashioned “fakey-pass” foxed most of the team once too often.
As half-time approached the usually reliable Dan Simpson decided to go for a reverse stick…waft (well I was going to type shot, but it wasn’t…) slightly embarrassing.
We wanted more of the same in the second half, but didn’t really get it. Fitness again told and Worthing played a lot better and made things a lot more difficult. Tosh also made it more difficult by missing the target from 8 yards when it would have been easier to score. Luckily Benson was on hand to flick into an empty and Davros finished off the scoring.
Luke also implored the team to go for safer passes and not try to pass through 2 Worthing players. He promptly ignored his own advice on two sixteens. And there I was thinking things would be different with him in the side….
As the side went their own ways at the end of the match it was left to JC and I to slurp and chomp our way through our own body weight in soup, bread and various assorted bite sized snacks back at their place. Also in the absence of a man of the match or fool of the fixture vote it is left to me on a Monday lunchtime to arbitrarily come to a decision.
Well Man of the Match has to be hat-trick hero JC. Fool of the fixture may have to be a joint award for Tosh and Dan for the aforementioned aberrations…..unless Ready can think of something……no? Ok, Tosh, it’s you that miss was horrid!
Team: Brooksy, Wrighty, Lukey (Willy), Ready, Short-haired Smithy, Tosh, Grimes, Bondy, JC, Davros, Benson
JC x 3
Davros x 2
Benson x 1
Tosh x 1