`Lane Cove West 4 Northside Monash 0

 

Now that’s what you call a result! Historic in many respects:

 

  1. I don’t expect often again to be younger than the team average. But today I was (just). With our the younger players of our squad showing no staying power and dropping down injured, it was left to the hardened, experienced players to step up. To follow the 10 changes of 2 weeks ago & the 7 last week, this week it was another 12: a recall for Warwick, Bob, Dave C & Charlie, filling in for the injured Dave B, the sick Bill, the absent Martins & Jon; and Dave P & Brian who had returned to the As. (No less than 25 players have featured in our last four games, and only Dave W, Matt, Eric & I played in all of them.) Leaving aside Ben, who was guesting (but to great effect: see below) a bit over 53 was the average age today: no-one born in the 60s, with only Matt & Charlie below the half-century.

 

  1. First time we’ve won by 4 goals since July 2001 (5-1 v North Sydney: I can’t find when we last actually won 4-0).

 

  1. First time we’ve won without either Martin for over 3 years (but then there’s only been one game since then that we’ve played without either of them).

 

  1. Steve scored his first goal since our first game in division 2: April 2003.

 

  1. Two of the four goals scored by players in the back four.

 

  1. It rained.

 

  1. But most significantly, our first win since the old Pope died: the new one need no longer feel he has to hang on just for us.

 

Northside have lost every game this year, but as we expected, they played with a lot of spirit, and we struggled in the first half to get on top. Indeed, there was one nasty moment when Dave W was relieved to see the ball balloon over our bar after he had done well to push it up. We had chances of our own, though, with Charlie, in particular, finding room to run all over their half. But our shots and corners just wouldn’t go in, with their keeper generally well-positioned and looking confident. The first half ended all square, but with us confident that our good football would see us through.

 

And so it proved but it was never easy. We stuck at the task well, kept moving the ball around, and all kept running to the end.

 

What we needed to set us on our way was pace up front. Ivan had suggested that a cameo from Ben might be just the trick, and how right he was. He came on just before half-time, and pushed up front in the second half. His speed always made him dangerous, and we thought we were to be ahead about 10 minutes into the second half, when he was one-on-one with the keeper. But an arm stuck out kept the scores level, and on we battled.

 

Then we had an unusual indirect free-kick 10 yards out: their player had called “mine”. They all lined up on the line, Ernie touched it to Peter; his shot hit the wall, and Ernie’s fierce follow-up hit me!

 

It was beginning to feel like it wasn’t our day so we were relieved, not long after, to see Ben score from a similar position as before, this time giving the keeper no chance: 1-0. With his job done, Ben left the field soon after to rest up for the As; & Warwick got injured, so the remaining 11 soldiered on to the end. (No bad thing, as we didn’t suffer the disruption that our subbing normally brings. On the other hand, there were many tired limbs well before the end).

 

Then: drama at the other end: Ernie headed a ball off our line when the forward was already celebrating a “goal” from a header following a corner.

 

But our second goal followed fairly soon: a good passing move to Ernie to Charlie who mis-kicked but it fell to Bob on the left of their area, and his shot made it 2-0.

 

This ought to have ended the contest, but for a few minutes they rallied, helped by some subs from their A team. But we beat out a couple more corners, and continued to find acres of space to attack in. And two more goals followed. One for Dave C (who, with a grand total of 2 goals is now clear second in the chase for the Golden Boot): coolly taken, with just the keeper to beat, after a good move involving Eric, Charlie & Ernie; and the final goal for Steve, who – like Bob – had pushed up from the back, and again took his time, and picked his spot. So 4-0 it was with a couple of minutes to go. Five would have been nice, given how many times we’ve conceded that many this year, but four was enough, and our team of advanced years was rightly proud of its afternoon’s work.

 

Bob was man-of-the match for his flawless performance on return. I was second (probably for running around a lot in panic that we might lose, before things settled down) and baby of the team, Matt, was 3rd.

 

Thanks to Guy for reffing and Brian for lining (unexpectedly); to Bob & Warwick for filling in so effectively in our hour of need; and to Bill for bringing the beers, and then being linesman despite his ‘flu; to Dave W for playing 2 games in goal and to Eric for reffing for the As.

 

Next week: Berowra, with whom we drew in the first round. We’ve lost only one of our last three (& that was robbery), and next week we should make it two wins out of four.

 

MARK BRYANT