B GRADE MATCH REPORT

Mount Colah (O35) 4 - 0 Lane Cove West (O35)

Match Report

One of the joys of football is that sometimes a good team doesn’t beat a not so good team, but today wasn’t one of those 
sometimes; which was a shame as, today, we weren’t the good team. Mount Colah were a class above us in most departments 
(except maybe goalkeeping: we didn’t get to find out what theirs was like!).

Eric was missing for the first time for 21 months. (We lost 4-0 that day, too but we shouldn’t read too much into that, 
since we were then in the middle of a run of losing quite a lot nil every week, at the end of our far-off days in div 1). 
Tim C was also missing, but John was back: this meant that everyone else had to search their bags for items of clothing 
John had misplaced, but since we were all on hand commendably early, the pre-game tactic talk was not too disrupted. 
Ernie dispelled the rumour that he might be training to become a left back when he grows up, so Warren slotted in there, 
leaving only 6 vying for the mid-field positions. 

Perhaps if all 6 had been there all the time, it might have made a difference. As it was, our opponents seemed to have 
little difficulty getting past those who were valiantly defending the middle ground, and our time out of our half was
limited.

As too often, we went behind early on. An attacker on the left found himself goalside of the marking for just a moment, 
but it was long enough for the ball to be threaded through and a low shot eluded Dave W’s fingers into the far corner. 

The remainder of the first half was short of incident. Or maybe it’s just that, as I was wielding a flag, not the clipboard, 
I am relying on my memory, which reveals things like the hot sunny day turning most unexpectedly, and briefly, to rain, and 
we had to put the tarpaulin over the bags, but not much about the actual game. Hang on, Martin C went down like a felled 
tree, I remember that, and had to be helped off, clutching the problem knee. Fortunately it staged a miraculous recovery,
and he was back in the second half to full effect.

But before that, and before half-time, in fact, a second well-taken goal confirmed our uphill task.

The second half was more of the same. Our most notable chance was a long-range shot from Peter that hit the bar (which was 
undoubtedly a bit low) and bounced out to Dave B whose attempt to capitalise was deflected for a corner. He and Neil toiled 
away when the ball came their way, and we got a few corners, but the mountainous defenders from Mount Colah seemed to be 
everywhere.

At the other end Dave W was pulling off a string of clean catches under pressure, and man-of-the match Martin P was valiant 
in the heart of the defence. It was ironic, then, that the two of them combined to create the chance that led to the third 
goal. Dave came out to claim a ball loose in the area, but Martin had to touch it away from an attacker. Dave picked it up, 
and “back” pass was the decision. (It won’t be any comfort that as linesman nearby, I thought the decision was right, not 
that anyone asked me). The free-kick missed and was scrambled away but a thunderous shot sent it back to the net, and it 
was 3-0.

A little later we were lucky that an illegal challenge not obviously distant from the area was given outside (glad I wasn’t 
consulted on that one, either: I would have been querying whether part of the 18-yard box had perhaps been excised from the 
penalty zone in the same way that those islands of the Northern Territory are no longer Australian for the purposes of 
immigration). The danger was evaded, in part by use of a wall that Dave W had requested be manned by 2.6 defenders. (I think
this may have been his way of querying whether anyone was, in fact, listening. I don’t think it was a suggestion that any of 
our personnel actually only amounts to 0.6 of a player. But I may be wrong).

But soon there followed the 4th goal, the details of which escape me, and as there was then still quite a while to go, it was 
a relief that we held out till the end to do better than Leeds did.

The other results were:

Kissing Point 3 Hornsby Heights 2
Berowra 1 Lindfield A 2
Northbridge 1 Lindfield B 3
North Sydney 2 W Pymble 1

The two teams we’ve played are joint top of the table (not just because they’ve played us). Next week, we’re playing Northbridge 
who, like us, have no points. Lindfield B who beat them this week had lost 5-1 to Mount Colah in the first week (so today was the 
least that Mt Colah have scored all season!). From all this it naturally follows that we can expect to win by 2 goals next week

MARK BRYANT