The Owls Oration
With the school kids surprisingly cleared off the pitch well before 11am , Game 1 got underway several minutes early.
And no wind today 👌
On paper the teams had looked reasonably well balanced , but the reality was very different. Several players had obviously dropped out and changes had been made.
The Reds applied enormous pressure from the start, utilising passing skills not usually seen in Game 1 , and bombarding the Blacks goal with shot after shot. Paulo went closest, hitting the woodwork , before an enormous scramble on the edge of area resulting in 4 or 5 shots, which were amazingly kept out by Gary Sprake in goal ( alias Tim🎢 ).
As the saying goes – “football is a funny old game” – and it certainly lived up to this reputation when Blacks finally got hold of the ball. They quickly moved it up the pitch to the one guy who deceived everyone , even his team mates !
Yes , that goal poacher extraordinaire , Ken suddenly burst into life and neatly tucked the ball into the net – Blacks 1 up. Totally against the run of play.
Back came the Reds , but they couldn’t buy a goal despite their total dominance. And just to show it was no fluke, Dave🐇 rifled a 2nd goal for Blacks , still totally against the run of play.
It had to happen , and it did , Reds finally breached Tim’s barricade as Alan 🐑 slotted home for the Reds. 2-1 Blacks , game on.
The next water break had H👮♂️ waving his truncheon at Boris , telling him he was in the wrong colour and should have been playing in Black ! Boris being Boris , didn’t make a fuss and sought out a black bib. The ref🦉 , being wise , didn’t enter into the argument , although Boris was listed as Red on my phone.
Blacks kicked off the next quarter with the extra man , and looked to build on their 1 goal lead. Soon after , Ken strikes again but this time it bounced off the woodwork.
Toni comes out of goal to show his team mates how to score – and it was a belter 2-2.
Toni finds space again but is thwarted by Tim , who produces another incredible save. Certainly looking like MOM – and not MOT 😜.
Reds finally go in front as Paulo buries one 3-2 , but Graham soon bags an equaliser 3-3. Not to be outdone , Paulo hits another to put the Reds in charge again 4-3.
And just before the final whistle, Dave 🐇 hammers home a deserved equaliser 4-4.
Great game , despite a bit of running particularly in the 2nd half .
MOM ? Well , if this means Mouth of the Match , there’s only 1 winner – take a bow Bambi.
But if it’s Man of the Match it has to be Gary Sprake – 🍾🥂 well done Tim🎢
Colins Corner
Another day, another group of youngsters using the Polideportivo before us and as soon as we finished. Must have seemed weird to a group of youngsters having to give up their pitch so a group of old buggers could have a kick around 😅
Game 2 was elevated to 8 aside from 7 aside and as ever one side looked stronger and this time it was blacks.
Reds kicked off and after 3 passes it was in the back of the net, brilliant, not really, Fez pounced on a loose touch passed to Keith who drilled the ball into the net. 1-0 Blacks
For the next 5 minutes Reds really struggled, blacks were dominant, Keith, Fez and 🚖 were bossing the pitch making man marking difficult, but reds struck back, wild man of Borneo Martin received the ball and scored and amazingly returning Dez curled the ball past Daz in goal to make it 2-1 Reds
Hang on we might have a boy band forming here: Fez, Dez and Daz just need Bez from Happy Mondays to start playing 😅
Colin in Reds defence usually has Fez in his back pocket, but today the interchanging play from blacks including Steve playing another good game, meant that Fez wasn’t just static up front so eventually it was obvious he’d get his chance and he made no mistake dispatching the ball and scores were level 2-2
Ref John decided to get involved and awarded a penalty to the surprise of everyone, Tommy allegedly stepping into the area when the ball was near the corner flag!
Fez stepped up but his shot was brilliantly saved by Martin.
3-2 reds came courtesy of Dez curling another shot past Daz but was soon sin binned for persistent running and tackling.
With a man extra blacks were trying everything to get an equaliser but as the clock ticked down they somehow decided to pass the ball into empty space and Han greatfully collected the ball and scored a 4th goal for reds with the last kick of the game
4-2 reds was the most unlikeliest of scores at the start.
Then the kids ran back on and we had to try and reclaim our balls from amongst theirs 🤔
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