Good money has been spent to see games nowhere near as entertaining as our Sunday clash with Shake-Shake. The game had action, drama and a chaotic final five minutes when the ball hardly moved.
We kicked off on a chilly morning, a heavy dew on the field adding an extra variable to the game. In the opening minutes the Shake-Shake central defender miscued a cross from the right, the ball falling right into Ivan's path. His first-time shot from the edge of the area brought a fine save from the goalkeeper, who dived high to his left to parry the ball away. A few minutes later the 'keeper was in action again, this time scrambling to his right to turn Steve Shea's outrageous 40-yard shot around the post. Andy delivered the corner from the left precisely to the far post where Karsten had an unpressured nod-in to give us the lead.
After largely controlling the opening twenty minutes we suffered a period when we simply couldn't keep the ball. Shake-Shake attacked repeatedly and when we cleared the ball the respite was brief. The equaliser came after the ball had bounced from player to player around the perimeter of our penalty area: a low shot from the left sat just inside Mike's right post.
Our concentration returned after conceding, and our second goal was a text-book example of how to beat the offside trap. With the Shake-Shake defence pushing out and Bardot in an offside position, Steve started a diagonal run from deep and met a perfect through-ball from Karsten. The 'keeper advanced but Steve rounded him and scored from a narrow angle.
We'd hardly held the lead for a couple of minutes before the scores were level again. A pass was played down our right channel to an attacker who was probably in an offside position. The referee saw things differently, however, and that attacker was away. Fast enough without the luxury of a three yard head-start, he ran through unchallenged and slotted the ball past Mike.
In the second half we were very successful in closing down attacks. Thanks to the close attentions of Kirk, Mike A, Tom, Tim, Kelvin and Pap in defence, and the hard work by the rest of the team, Shake-Shake were limited to snatched shots, easily dealt with by Mike O.
We had a few chances for a renewed lead in the later part of the game. Andy's chipped free kick was flicked over the 'keeper by Bardot, but hit the crossbar, and Joe's volley from the rebound flew just wide. From Andy's corner, Bardot struck a decent shot from the edge of the area, but Ivan couldn't get himself out of the way and the ball rebounded off his leg. And Karsten played another fine attacking pass, this time into Ivan's path. He cut inside the defender and struck a shot from the edge of the area, but it went well wide.
With just five minutes left Bardot appeared offside when he received the ball, 10 yards out to the right of the goal, but again the referee disagreed. The shot was parried by the 'keeper, but Samuel was lurking at the far post and stretched to put the ball back towards the goal. The 'keeper lunged and seemed to have pulled the ball back from the line, but Samuel, wriggling along on his belly, got his head to the ball and managed to push it over the line - possibly the (s)lowest headed goal ever scored.
Shake-Shake seemed to collectively decide that they could make the referee change his decision if they shouted at him for long enough. With the clock ticking down the whole team encircled the ref, remonstrating wildly. By the time some semblance of order had been restored the ref was preparing to blow the final whistle.
A great team performance with lots of running and hard work, and a deserved victory that puts us at the top of the division.
Squad: Mike O, Mike A, Kirk, Kelvin, Tom, Pap, Tim R, Steve S, Andy, Karsten, Victor, Tim T, Ivan, Christer, Bardot, Samuel
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