2-0 L to Spencer
Match Report by Cliff Peck
The eleven available players were joined late on by returning player Alastair Mossman who had been out injured for almost a year. Standing 6’+ tall ,dressed in tatty lime green leggins and lime green undershirt he looked the epitome of the jolly green giant depicted in the sweet corn adverts, welcome back Alastair.
Our starting line up was tweaked somewhat due to Tony ( Indian Jim ) James’ knee issue , so he played at left back whilst Nigel SK played up front.
From the age point of view both sides had a similar average age, with crocked Jonny ( Rocky Balboa ) Ray orchestrating matters from the side line the game got underway.
From the off Spencer, with their varied array of talent up front took the game to Southgate with an apparent shoot on sight policy.Our back line players Tony J , Martin C , Tim G and our very own President Dickie B worked hard making many excellent interceptions and tackles in and around our ‘D’ , our goalkeeper needing to be alert at all times.
As the half wore on quality passes out from the defence were picked up by our midfield four of Trevor R , Graeme W , Colin W and Robin T allowing them to receive the ball , turn and make inroads towards Spencer’s rear guard . With Patti showing signs of freer movement returning following his surgery last year , ably assisted by Nigel we kept Spencer on their toes throughout the half .
HT Spencer 0 Magnums 0.
The second half was petty much the same as the first . Tony and Dickie were having stellar performances in their respective full back positions with Tim and Martin mopping up in the center .
With about 12/13 minutes gone in the half we were unable to prevent a ball being slipped into the center from our back line allowing Spencer to prod the ball into the net , 1 0 Spencer.
Our midfield , working extremely hard , began to get the upper hand , with Tony joining Graeme and Colin in a concerted effort to get an equalizer .
Unfortunately during one of our pushes forward Spencer managed to intercept the ball hitting a long pass into our ‘D’ , with a forward descending onto it and yours truly running out to the loose ball he managed to touch it with his outstretched stick passed me and into the net. 2 0 Spencer .
The final 10 minutes were played out with Magnums still pushing for that elusive goal , Spencer ran out winners but they were made to work hard for the entire match to achieve it .
Our players left their all on the pitch and should be proud of their individual performances , culminating in a fine team performance overall.
Man of the match was Tony James pipping Dickie by a whisker.
PS Magnums won 5 3 in the bar afterwards.
Cliff