Mens F 5 - 3 CSSA

09 May 2010

Dear F Team,

On a hot, sticky evening, out strode the gallant F Team.

Numbers were heavily against us. It seemed like Rourkes Drift was about to be re-enacted ( and some of us were there you know ! ).

Just 14 Brave but complete F'ers, were up against against an overwhelming hoard of...........8. ( but they had the support of 23,000 "inmates" which is just as intimidating as the Zulus )

Not to mention the fact that Chris's past calculations on our "safety margin" had been turned upside down by the Greek/Euro debacle and Pork Belly futures taking a tumble. On we went.

Inexplicably, and without warning, we began playing the first half first, took the opposition completely by surprise and strung together a set of 37 "passes" near equaling the record of our whole season, and immediately had, 1, 2, 3, 4 and more attacks on goal. THEIR goal !

This resulted in Young Dog Tom picking up his first goal in a while and steaming into the top spot of leading scorer by.....1. We were on a roll. Despite fearsome defending by CSSA and our still trying to play our usual game ( ie giving the ball to the opposition ! ) we kept passing to them, but of course they were not there...so we moved on and forward. Midfield was having a free hand in distributing the ball and soon, the ball came back I think from an Ali G run to Thorsten at the top of the "D", who collected the ball, lined-up a shot hard into the goal for 2 - 0.

Not long after, a similar attack, from all the way back in our defence, saw the WMD open, turn and shoot for 3 - 0. We were strolling and happy. Except Tom who saw his slender goal scoring lead now leveled. I even gave him a glancing 'pass' merely at chest height and under 100mph, that he chose to ignore and deflect off for a 16 rather than score, so what can one do ?

Heading back down field, our defence was having a relatively calm day, but CSSA were not sitting back and kept 1-2 players always high, and not long after, a long ball through say a couple of passes and one into the D with a fine hard shot past Jeroen. The writing was on the wall. Well actually it was on the scoreboard and it said 3 - 1. The backs of Tim, Lyle ( YES HE WAS PLAYING !!!!! ) David G, and Steve did an admirable job all game, with occasional lapses I can ONLY attribute to boredom and not realizing we actually had any opposition on the field !

Midfield, Fergsu stepped in, together with Ali G, Thorsten, JP, Pete and Steve at times too.

Up front, Jonesy was out on the wing, firing balls in, as was Tom on the left, and events blur as to if CSSA scored a second goal next, giving considerable concern as to the evenings eventual outcome, or it was the WMD's 2nd, and our 4th, taken from a beautiful through pass from Fergus just nicked in and off past the GK, to put us in to half time a 4 - 2.

Much back patting, mutterings of missed chances, more passing, etc etc, led us out to the second half, and not quite more of the same. having now reached near the magical 100 'pass' ratio, we forgot how to do more and tended to 'welly' passes to playing 100 metres away when we had a player ( or 5 ) free near everywhere. The last thing Chappie had said was " Don't give away possession !" So sure enough, and following instructions, the last thing many of us did was...Give away possession. CSSA then decided to score another goal to keep the situation "interesting" and we had chance after chance. Their GK began to improve, and we began to "miss" more. Lucky, Chris decided to re-evaluate his "statistics' mid game, and added a "bonus" by driving through 2-3 players, into the "D", and shot past the GK from a narrow angle for 5-3.

CSSA kept on fighting, and if not for good saves from Jeroen, hard defending, luckily at times just because of extra numbers, another goal to them would have seen a VERY nervous last 5 - 10 minutes. We hung on. 5 - 3 it ended. Should really have been 6, 7, 8, 10...but what the heck. WE WON. There's were protests of Hat-trick avoidance and grumblings on loosing our form and shape, but in the end, we put 3 points on the League standings and took 3 from CSSA. We retired to the Sportsmans to savour victory and head into the last game heads high.

Well done to all.

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GAME ; HKFC F vz CSSA

RESULT : WIN

SCORE : 5 - 3

GOALS : Clive 2, Tom 1, Chris 1, Thorsten 1

MVP : Tim Hancock. ( taking out and winning MANY tackles at the last moment to stop CSSA getting to many goalscoring opportunities ! )

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See you all this Friday for LAST GAME of the regular season.

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