Rorys Ramblings
Another scintillating game of one-touch tikka takka fitbah was played out on the hallowed Poli turf on Thursday. The reds started out with bunion boy and enthusiastic bread maker Rory in goal. Stalwart Fred took up his usual spot at the back. What he lacks in pace he makes up for with speed of thought, although working out a complex maths calculation at speed is unlikely to stop the opposition from scoring.
Super villain Terry was doin’ a Morgan Rogers in midfield and making sure absolutely all of his worthy team mates got a touch of the ball (Spirit of the game lads!). The Fish was playing inverted right full-back with support from Ian playing wide on the right. Up front the reds had a powerful two pronged attack of motivational speaker an Insta-Influencer Bambi, alongside goal poacher supreme and super flick-merchant Mick.
They were up against a tough cadre of ball juggling athletes led by player / ref Kevo, and backed up by Graham in midfield. The blacks also had the deadly scoring combo of Ton and wing-wizard Ken to keep the reds’ defence on its toes. And just in case any of the reds thought about running through on goal, tough tackling Trump refugee Sean was on hand to take him out with his own personal version of “operation fury”. Meanwhile former prop forward and libero Geoff was on hand to marshal the blacks defence.
Welsh Steve was hoping to improve on his previous outing when 120 percent of his passes failed to find a teammate.
The reds started well with Villa inspired Terry, spraying the ball about with aplomb. Then he told aplomb to get lost and started passing to his teammates. The blacks responded with some neat attacking play which released Graham through on goal. Rory thought he’d closed it down only for Graham to expertly thread the ball through his legs and into the empty net. A brilliant finish! Reds 0-1 Blacks.
The reds responded strongly with Bambi threatening the blacks’ goal. Unfortunately when he did get a shot it was more likely to trouble the corner flag than the blacks’ keeper. The Millwall wide man finally got his bearings right at the 50th attempt with a great strike across the keeper, bulging the net in the far corner. Reds 1-1 Blacks.
The reds were playing with more confidence after their goal and Mick played a number of delicate flicks to open up the blacks’ defence to no avail. Meanwhile, Bambi continued to berate his teammates for their inability to hit a forty yard pass right onto his foot through a mass of opposition players, enabling him to score. Go figure.
Meanwhile, H was shutting down any reds attacks, allowing Kevo to launch some nice forward moves for the blacks. Against the run of play the reds scored from a corner when Rory fired the ball through Graham’s legs, past the keeper and into off the post. Reds 2-1 Blacks
Graham was on fire and brilliantly struck an equaliser just as the reds were starting to dominate. Reds 2-2 Blacks.
What a game it was, with both teams searching for a winning goal. Cometh the hour cometh the man, and another great ball from Ton released his goalscoring partner in on goal. Ken jinked to the left and right before drilling the ball low and hard past the despairing dive of the Fish in goal. Reds 2-3 Blacks.
Bambi thought he had equalised for the reds but a closer inspection of VAR revealed why Kevo appeared to be a foot shorter than normal. A scything tackle from behind had taken the big man out before Bambi’s strike on goal. The numpteys at Stockley Park had no hesitation in disallowing the goal.
The reds weren’t downhearted, but they drew level thanks to the best move of the match. After a nice interchange of passes Rory picked out Ian at inside right. To the amazement of the watching defence, and his teammates, Ian controlled the ball perfectly before firing the ball past Ton and into the corner of the goal. What an equaliser! Reds 3-3 Blacks.
Both sides soon decided to settle for a draw and quickly put together a 15 point plan mediated by the Pakistan High Commissioner. Both sides left the pitch with their dignity intact and a faint hope that West Ham might get a point out of Arsenal at the weekend.
Colins Corner
Thursday pitched 9 reds v 8 blacks, or attack v defence in old money
Eddie in reds goal did a couple of stretches as his warm up, not wanting to jinx himself with any practice shots.
With 17 players on the pitch space was at a premium and it felt like reds had all of it with blacks always struggling to release the ball from keeper Steve but the marauding reds were up against resolute black defenders.
The red attack of Darren, Henning, Jim, Rick and Alvin with Paul flitting around were well supported by Dave 👑 and Mark were shadowed by the black defence of Colin, Keith, Prak and Dave 🚖 with Mercedes, Joe and Mick trying to create an out ball option.
Somehow though the ball was worked from defence to Keith to Joe who scored for blacks who took an unexpected lead.
The second quarter remained goalless with blacks simply defending for their lives and reds moving the ball around comfortably.
3rd quarter and with 👑 taking long range shots with a wicked curl you could sense an equalizer.
A muddle at the back saw a corner conceded by blacks but as the ball came in it was punted out and Keith who’d stayed up front had time and space to score a second.
Amazingly blacks were 2-0 and no one was more surprised than the blacks.
A ball to the face by Mercedes saw her depart with Alvin switching sides to balance the teams….. no hang on, she’s playing on. It was suggested that for the final 20 that maybe blacks could keep Alvin and have the extra man.
This request was rejected by ref 🦊 on the belief Blacks were already the strongest team!!
Final quarter and the eventual dominance by reds resulted in Henning scoring to reduce the deficit to 2-1
Now the next moment was filmed and already on Facebook.
A goal was scored by Keith, reds were adamant he was in the box, he wasn’t certain, but the reds won out. However what was totally overlooked was Paul skipping through the box to stop Keiths first back heeled attempt.
No goal, correctly based on video evidence captured by our roving reporter Frank, who left the ballboy duties to Dave, Mick and Graham, however a penalty should have been awarded.
Thats how it all ended 2-1 blacks
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