Sportsman's League,
Sun 24 Nov 2013
Clapham Rovers A 0 vs Loko 1
ONE ZERO TO THE CROCKED, MAKESHIFT LOKO
If that wasn’t enough, we lost a further three players on the morning of the game. This meant that crocked, ex skipper Dave F would have no alternative but to make his comeback…5 weeks ahead of his medical schedule…
As we prepared for kick off, it also became obvious that Clapham Rovers had also been struggling to get a team out as half of their players looked unfamiliar.
The early stages of the encounter saw Loko dominate the midfield with new recruit Oliver and James in particular causing havoc as they shimmied past their defenders. Sadly, this domination didn’t result in us scoring as we rarely hit their target.
Clapham Rovers would launch regular counter-attacks and threaten our makeshift defence. New boy Jet who, by his own admission, had spent too much time boozing and smoking in the past few weeks, was being played out of position and was finding it hard to keep up with the lads whilst Ivan was having a rought time as a left back.
On 23 minutes, a long ball down the left saw their diminutive right winger outsprint the Loko defence and move towards the edge of our box. With no help in sight, John rushed out of his goal and proceeded to scythe the poor lad with all the subtlety of Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime. Cue hearts in Loko mouths but, thankfully, the rather laidback ref only showed our unbridled Irishman a yellow card.
As Jet decided to call it a day, Dave F made his entrance with Gary now slotting into central defence and stabilising the backline.
As we approached half time, Loko stepped up a gear and were proving more and more menacing but were still unable to break the deadlock.
Half time: Clapham Rovers 0 vs Loko 0.
The second half got off to a vigorous start as Clapham Rovers looked determined to put a swift end to Loko’s ambitions. The most dangerous man on their side was their manager Chris who was now making inroads on the right wing despite Matthew’s vigilant watch.
On 62 minutes, following a corner kick from the left, their solid centre back bulldozed our defence and headed the ball with all his might. The ball was now goalbound only for Ivan to stretch his hairy right leg a la Billy Elliott on the goalline and curl the ball out of danger. Most probably not a pretty sight but one that made the Loko-men realise that this had to be their day.
Loko were now cruising, averting danger at the back with Neil (pictured above) in his pomp despite a nagging injury, John remaining imperial in goal whilst, in the middle of the park, Harry was sacrificing his forward ambitions for the benefit of the team and bossing his patch. Lani (Jet’s cousin), was also doing very well as he was combining tirelessly with Oliver and James despite a chronic knee injury.
It was all ticking along nicely and it was definitely Loko time. On 72 minutes, following a Clapham attack, Neil headed the ball out of danger, James collected in the middle of the park and carved their defence open with an inch- perfect pass towards OLIVER who drilled his shot just under their keeper and into the net from 10 yards out.
It looked like Loko had their result. Yet, with 5 minutes on the clock, their right winger fired a shot from the right edge of our box that rebounded off John’s far post and, with several Loko players stranded and on the floor, their unchallenged skinny number 11 somehow managed to sky the ball from 1 yard out for what is likely to be a strong contender for the Sportsman’s League miss of the season.
True, we're now out of the cup having lost the first leg 4-1. However, this was a great performance in view of the fact that half our regular players were missing.
M.O.M: Great performances by John, Neil, James and Harry. But MOM has got to go to OLIVER whose style bears an uncanny resemblance to Adil’s, our regular centre forward. If these two manage to play together then Division 1 defenders are in for a torrid time.
Line-up: John – Matthew, Neil, Jet (then Dave F, 20 mns), Ivan - Gary, Harry, Matt, Lani – James, Oliver
No comments:
Post a Comment