Mens H 4 - 0 HKFC G

“Getting Lazy”

Our play in the early exchanges was as clinical as I have ever seen it.

Lloydy opened the scoring after Geoff played him in and, facing the wrong way, he bashed the ball backwards into the corner of the backboard past Kubo.  Our second goal also stemmed from Geoff playing the ball in early to Lloydy, whose snapshot was going wide until Paul McGuire (with the aid of lightning reflexes) deflected it in at the far post.  Lloydy’s second and our third goal was a product of Prakash’s superb through ball into the left channel that threaded the eye of a needle.  Fifteen minutes in and we were 3-0 up and playing with panache. 

Our three early goals killed the game as a contest and we could be excused for slipping into cruise control and “getting lazy” (well I can excuse it, but maybe not Nick).  The Hun was right and we did get lazy and let the G’s dominate for the rest of the half.  Robbie, as our No.1 runner, was again crucial in making it tough for the G’s to convert their numerous short corner attempts. 

Lloydy could have completed his hat-trick after about 20-odd minutes, but denied Geoff a second assist when, unmarked and at close range, he shot wide.  Q nearly lost a hundred bucks, but was awfully slow in reaching for his wallet to “put money on Lloydy scoring from there”.

During the interval, the G’s had Chappie to coach them, whilst we kicked back and enjoyed Robbie’s half-time oranges.  We dispensed with the teamtalk, as we knew exactly what the gameplan was and were in complete control.  Nothing needed fixing.

At the start of the second half, Paul brilliantly had the ball in the net for a second time – this time a deflect of the ball that would have hit him somewhere painful.  The umpire harshly disallowed the goal, saying that the ball had hit his hand illegally.  Geoff smashed a rocket shot into the top corner that was, unluckily for his stats, also disallowed for, I think, a dangerous ball into the D beforehand.  Chris Windle did finally chalk up goal No.4 for us halfway into the half after he “lazily” lofted Guy’s ball high into the roof of the net.

There were moments towards the end where we toyed with the opposition.  Lloydy took a long corner from the left and decided to beat one of our former players twice in the same passage of play.  He dragged the ball past him once, double-backed and then lifted the ball over the hapless defender’s stick to beat him again second time around.  Both times the defender let out a yelp of despair when he lunged and completely missed the ball.

There was still time at the end for the game’s defining moment – my glorious open goal miss from less than a yard out.  Nirmal told me afterwards that if I had declined the opportunity to effect my brilliant goal-line clearance for the opposition, he would have awarded a penalty flick, as a defender had illegally stopped the ball from going into the goal.  Thanks Nirmal…, now you’ve made me feel even more of a muppet!

Cheers,

Louman

Lineup: Cyrus Law, Robbie Collins, Ali Cameron, Nick Hunsworth, Alan Powrie, Prakash Kirpalani, Nev Watkins, David Fargus, Jim Dore, Guy Higgins, Q Burrows, Chris Windle, Geoff Wong, Paul McGuire, Lewis Man, David Lloyd.

Goals: Lloydy 2, “Mojo” Mugwire, Chris Windle

Assists: Prakash, Geoff, Lloydy, Guy.