1st XI
Another win under the belt and 8 games to go. A Friday afternoon blip or two threatened the presence of the old man on the pitch but luckily the met office stepped in and grounded Biggles Woody at midday and our twelfth player arrived 10 minutes in. Having chewed the cud with Woody about energy companies, coffee buying and navigation skills he decided to change and 10 minutes later was at left back showing up one side of the defence.
By that point we were 2 up courtesy of a stroke from Wils after an end to end move where Paddy’s shot was taken off the line by a defender’s boot with Ceige setting up Wiso for a tap in to make it 2 – 0 and we were in reasonably comfortable territory. That changed with Scarney deciding that his position on the bottom of the Fantasy League table was being threatened by the clean sheet last week and a first half clean sheet this week. A long barrier earned a yellow and on came Biggles. Maidstone stepped up their game but other than a couple of short corners created very little. Paddy took one off the line and played a text book forward defensive to another to repel another shot.
As the second half beckoned so did the storm that took Biggles out of the air. The game was over when Wiso tucked away his second. The cold rain came down and Tommy came off. A moment of carelessness allowed the home side to nick one back to prevent a second clean sheet whilst Jay deflected home a top Rippers S cross. 4 – 1 and that was how it remained as does Scarneys position at the foot of the table.
For once our short corner routine was not its usual efficient self and we guilty of carrying the ball for too long and not spreading the play when breaking out across the half way line. Not so important in this game but it certainly will be in the coming 4 weeks which see us pitched against the teams currently in 2nd, 3rd and 4th places.
Fantasy positions, 1 Jay (75), 2 Wils (55), 3 Rippers S (40), 4 JLT (35), 5 Ceige, Paddy (34), 7 Harry (28), 8 Louis, Wiso (26), 10 Dan, Pagey (25), 12 Tommy, The Hound (20), 14 George (10), 15 Bouch (5), 16 Charlie T (3), 17 Woody, Sam L, Gilo (0) 20 Rippers N (-6)
21st Scarney (-10)
Rex
Ladies 1st XI
After an encouraging team talk from Goalie we prepared for the game against the relatively young Richmond team. At the toss we chose the end which meant we didn’t have to look into the blinding sunshine. From the outset we were pushing Richmond hard, battling for the 50/50 balls and pressuring them early on their free hits. For a pleasant change, we were maintaing our distance and no one was being pulled up for the 5 yard rule.
After 20 minutes or so Fletch pulled off our first goal which despite not being glamours by any means (the ball rolled in a gentle slow-motion style across the line, in fact I’m not even sure it had enough momentum to reach the back board, but hey we’re not complaining, a goal is a goal!) it put us ahead a short while before half time. Keen not to get complacent we kept the pressure on and only 5 minutes later Soph D.H. scored our second goal after a set up from Soph M. Unfortunately being 2-0 up with only a short while before half time did result in a little complacency on our part and that could only mean one thing… Richmond scored their first goal from a well rehearsed short corner. A brief 3 minutes later it was half time.
Some games just happen to have an abundance of one thing and this one had some dramatic-looking falls on both teams; in one instance a player made a solo break up the field which resulted in a spectacular fail due to a collision with their goal keeper, subsequent dive and belly skid. It could have been a good goal, but not today. Georgie did a great job of rattling the opposition with her tackling, though I wonder whether in fact it was her new fluorescent pink trainers that were dazzling the players and causing them to fall over left right and centre in her vicinity.
There’s only one way to describe the second half and that would be ‘scrappy.’ A goal-less and almost panicked half where we were lucky not to concede a second goal, despite Richmond having four consecutive short corners. A testament to the rules of play your own game, slow it down and don’t get complacent. However, for the OC’s this is now our 3rd week without a loss (win-draw-win) and we can only hope that we can keep that up for the rest of the season.
Ana
