Monday 8th September

Video highlights here

We continue to see players coming back with special mention for our leader Geoff who returned from his Summer recess and made everyone welcome 😉

We had an embarrassment of riches in the non playing personnel today, 2 refs, official photographer, 3 ball boys and 32 footballers.

Colin ref’d game 1 and reports on what he (I) saw.

With 2 late additions we lined up as 9 aside and the volume of players took some time to find space and string a number of passess together.

No goals were scored for 15 minutes so Steve went in goal to ensure things changed, which they did. For reasons known only to Steve he kicked the ball straight at Pete 🐟 and the ball rebounded straight past him into the net to give Blacks an unexpected early lead.

Reds responded with goals from Paulo 🇵🇹 and a brilliant pass from Ken to set Dave 🚖 up for his first.

With Reds deciding a change in goal was required Graham playing again in front of son and junior ball boy Sam decided to follow in Steve’s style and presented the ball to Keith 👻 who following his 5 goals on Thursday couldn’t believe his luck and accepted the gift to make it 2-2

With the game adopting a steady back and forth, Graham did manage to pull of some good saves but couldn’t stop Terry making into 3-2 blacks

Game 1 report by Colin

As we entered the later stages Dave 🚖 still nursing a calf injury showed his class and added his 2nd & 3rd goals for the game to end 4-3 Reds.

Passing comment about game 2 that Rory will report on was the constant shout “Shape blacks, Shape” Maybe they were practicing synchronised walking football, we’ll find out later I’m sure 😅

Game 2 report by Rory

Dazza Dazzles with his big toe….again.

Both teams confidently stroked the ball about in the first ten minutes, before they realised that the purpose of the game was to bang it into the net, henceforth scoring what is commonly called a goal. It was with some irony that Leicester City’s 445th choice midfield dynamo Dave managed to block off a lazy clearance from Rory to see the ball canon off his knee and into the net, past the statuesque Tommy

Blacks 1-0 Reds.

Steve (awright diamond geezer!) Loasby was having a solid game as the ref, and keeping the lads on a short leash. Stan let it be known early in the proceedings that he was going to make an attempt at Tommy’s long-standing WFS record for the most dodgy tackles from behind. It was going to be a tough one to beat, but a bad tackle every minute would see him safely into the record books.

Meanwhile Jim and Martin were building a good midfield partnership, reminding those of a certain age, just how good the Scots used to be at football (we’re on the march with…). Henning had flown in from Copenhagen that morning but by the end of the match probably wished he hadn’t left the Norse-lands. Hey look, it’s the taking part that counts. Thankfully, Laurie had made sure his batteries were well charged up (he switched to renewables at the end of last year) and motored up and down the pitch, engineering some good openings for the reds.

The blacks were proving difficult to break down with Kevo being his usual reliable self in goal and Stan and Paul providing solid defensive cover. Against the run of play, some neat passing from Martin released Norn Iron’s finest, Laurie in on goal, and from a tight angle drilled the ball home

Blacks 1-1 Reds

Unfortunately the reds couldn’t hold on for long, giving away a needless free kick on the edge of the box. Tommy had no chance as Stan side-footed the ball through the forest of legs into the bottom corner. Tommy was getting good a playing statues, only having time to rotate his eyeballs as the ball wafted past him.

Blacks 2-1 Reds

Dazza has having a bit of a blinder down the right wing, and having already blasted a few unsuspecting pigeons off their perches, finally sorted out his radar and finished off a fine flowing blacks move by toe poking the ball past new glove man Jim.

Blacks 3-1 Reds

Henning started to make some strong surging runs forward for the reds, occasionally remembering to take the ball with him. The blacks paid the price for some defensive complacency when they allowed Rory to take a shot from distance, sending the ball past the stunned Dave the Owl  in goal who was dreaming about the Owls being bought up by an oil rich Arab state, instead of having a one-way ticket to the Conference League.

Blacks 3-3 Reds.

The reds’ joy was short lived as the blacks stepped up a gear, forcing yet another free kick on the edge of the box. Sure enough they worked the exact same routine as the first free kick with Dave the fox doing the honours and banging it home.

Blacks 4-3 Reds

The final coup de gras was applied by Dazza who burst through the reds rather feeble defensive line and bore down on Martin in goal. Dazza’s big toe shimmied to the left, and his little toe shimmied to the right, causing Martin to go momentarily boss-eyed. Dazza didn’t hesitate and toe-poked the ball with venom into the bottom corner.

Blacks 5-3 Reds

On balance a well deserved win for the skilful ball juggling blacks in what was a very tight game, excellently officiated by Steve (awright diamond geezer) Loasby. The exhausted ball bashers retired to the bar, where Tommy graciously presented Stan with the golden shin pad for being the new record holder for dodgy tackles from behind.