Match report by Rory
Although both squads were weakened Polideportivo plastic. The black tabards were able to welcome Ken for his first run-out on the left of a formidable back three.
His well-timed tackles and thoughtful passes helped build many a black attack. The blacks were also pleased to welcome Bambi back following his pre-Christmas injury. His surging runs down the right flank had been missed and the blacks had suffered a couple of regrettable reversals over the congested Christmas and New Year programme. The reds set up with their usual 2, 3, 4, 1 formation with the Commander a strong physical presence at the sharp end of their attack.
With Kevo starting in goal for the blacks the reds were going to find it tough to find the back of the net, even if they could penetrate big Al’s well marshalled defensive wall, where Dave and Pete stood out with their attacking wing-back play. The early exchanges were tight with the reds feeding off the Commander’s deft touch and hold up play. With Alvin and Dave (the Owl) gliding into the space created by the Commander, the blacks had to rely on the agility of Kevo to keep the scores level. KDN started to look more threatening as he settled into the game and was starting to get some joy down the blacks’ right flank. The blacks weren’t having much joy up front as Frank (as classy as David O’Leary in his prime) was using his physical presence to disrupt the fluid movements of Steve, playing up front for the blacks.
The reds gradually built a period of domination with Alvin and Darren running (Editor’s note: don’t you mean walking?) between the lines and creating goalscoring opportunities. Alvin comfortably takes Dazza’s previous record for the number of shots over the bar in one game. It’ll take a long time before that record falls.
Eventually, the blacks’ defence succumbed to another attack flowing from the silky left foot of KDN. The Commander with back to goal, brilliantly held up the ball before a precise lay off to intersect Dazza’s precise run. From an acute angle Dazza slotted it past the outstretched Kevo (move over Roberto Carlos!). 1-0 to the reds, the blacks were stunned. With big Al leading by example and driving the blacks forward the tide gradually began to turn. Steve finally managed to shake of Frank’s shackles and curled it past Eoghan, who up until that point had appeared unbeatable.
At this point your correspondent must give a shout out to our much-maligned player / ref Keef, who had an eventful match for the reds (more of this later readers). The match wasn’t short of controversial incidents and the much-maligned VAR got a good run-out. First there was what can only be described as a thunderbolt volley from Al, which amazingly Eoghan got a hand to but couldn’t deflect wide because of the power of the strike. It was a good 5 minutes before the blacks could celebrate taking the lead, but Keef eventually made the right call. The black’s energetic midfield were keeping a tight rein on Dave (the Owl), who last time out had hit a season defining 5 goal blitz. Despite his best efforts, today was just not going to be his day.
The tide was very clearly flowing the way of the blacks although they suffered a blow when Dave tweaked his hamstring and had to go into goal. However, Kevo had clearly got over his recent knee problems and brought a fresh fluency to the blacks playing out from the back. The blacks embraced the total football approach and started to flood forward despite the best efforts of the well-marshalled reds’ defence. Then, out of the blue an extraordinary piece of luck allowed the blacks in on goal. A quickly taken free kick up the line by Keef struck one of the goal posts at the side of the pitch and bounced at right angles into Rory’s path. The Irishman pinged the ball through to Glyn, who cushioned it into the path of Al, who in turn picked out Steve lurking on the edge of the box. Steve had clearly changed his boots, as once again he hit the target and took the blacks into what looked like an unassailable 3-1 lead. Watch out for that move being incorporated into Pep Guardiola’s training ground routines.
However, the reds were not going to go quietly and with George continuing to be involved in some good link up play on the right flank the reds always looked like they could pull a goal back. As fate would have it, an opportunity arose for Keef to find redemption. A poor clearance from Rory went straight to Keef, who started to bear down on goal. Previous experience suggested that 99 times out of 100 Keef was going to miss the barn door……but this was the one in 100 that no-one suspected and Keef drilled a brilliant shot through the massed defence and past the unsighted Dave in goal. 3-2 to the blacks, setting things up for an exciting last 10 minutes. The huge effort needed to pull them back into the game meant that the reds were starting to run on fumes, and with Kevo orchestrating wave after wave of attack, it was only a matter of time before the blacks finally killed the game off. Glyn had played a strong game in the midfield engine room and he was combining will with Dave who was sitting in the inside left position. It was no surprise that following another one of Glyn’s powerful runs the ball fell to big Al, who once again showed his class by slotting the ball into the bottom corner. It was a fitting finale to what had been a fine performance by the blacks’ captain. With two evenly matched teams in another end to end match it was a shame that someone had to lose.
Final score Black Tabards 4-2 Red Tabards
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