Mens F 1- 0 Vets B

12 March 2010

Dear F Team,

It could have been the sudden return of cold weather, the late, slow arrival of the refs or an unknown cause, but last nights game, rather than being run at a frantic pace with two of the fittest, fastest, & most skillful sides in the Division, went into "slow-motion" from the starting whistle.

The pace of the game at best rose to a near fast walk, from both sides and nothing quite seemed to gel. However, both sides had their chances and mostly the F Team had slightly the upper hand, being in most part due to the average age only being 87 rather than the 99 for the Vets ! The Vets had brought out the "big guns" but luckly these were all positioned at the rear and some in midfield and had no forward line at all. Jeroen was hardly troubled making just a few saves throughout most of the game. The defence of David Watt playing superbly, Walter on song as ever, crunching tackles and clearing balls away, and JP pushing out hard kept most Vets attacks to a bare minimum.Vets must have had a good 6 or 7 short corners, but all were defended well. Midfield we had the usual suspects of Chris, Buno, Thorsten, Abhinav and a super-sub Joel Chu from the H's who played a full game and made a great difference with hard tackiling and good running. At some point Chris decided to comment on the referees decision making prowess and was Green carded....Bar Fine ! Out on the wings, hassling and running were Pete K and Dermot, who well into the first half unleashed a wicked 200mph cross into the D, picked up by the WMD as it "touched-down" and it hit the back of the net before the Vets GK had moved....yet..the whistle blew for a raised ball into the "D"..so we all went back to slow motion again ! Close to the break, another slightly weird decision saw Chris in discussions with Dermot on the Geo-political nature of Indian politics and the role of Women in todays ethnic minority groups, only to be overheard by the refereee, completely misunderstood, and YELLOW carded...double bar fine !! It remained that way till half time a few minutes later. 0 - 0.

A Chappie talk told us to step it up, move the ball around and the side who were going to win were the side who would not going to lose having given the win to the other team...or something as confusing as that. So we all went out and played the same game again except 2mph faster !

We started with the WMD put back to midfield ( shell-shocked ) and waiting for Chris to return. Certainly Buno was in great form with runs and telling passes as well as Thorsten and later Chris too dribbled so much that at times he had the entire Vets team trying to stop him. Vets stepped up the pace to a brisk walk and for the first 20 minutes of the second half we hardly got out of our half of the pitch, but still they had no real chances. The game wore on, people yawned, the large crowd, originally estimated at well over 3 ( Police said it was only 1 ) had long left the ground. Each minute took 120 seconds to pass by, and just 2 minutes remained. An final run down the pitch saw a short corner, only our second, awarded to the F Team. Chris pushed out, it came to the WMD, who realising the Vets defence would easily reach him by midnight, and seeing Sethi now fast asleep on the ground, went for a blistering high speed flick into the top righ corner ! Of course, in line with the games overall speed ( limit ) it went a little slower and lower, hitting the GK's leg pads, bounced up towards Nick Hunsworth who had stopped everyball, all game, but by now was already writing his next Bar speech and on thh way to the Bar itself, and he sliced it, as it travelled on into the goal. 1 - 0. Vets then r-estarted at breaknext speed, for the first time in the game and tore down the pitch into our D very nearly breaking through. Defending by all 11 F-Teamers held out for the final minutes and the final whistle blew.

Not exactly the "win of the season" but what the hell. A Win is a Win !

GAME. F Team vs Vets B

RESULT : Win. 1 - 0

GOALS : Clive 1

MVP : Chris Jones ( for Most Victimised Player ! )

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