LCW vs Greenwich (Home) - 30/04/2005

Line-up

Stefan

Clive

Theo

Ronnie

Scott

Kez

Ian

Dave

Loz

Seb

Charlie

Mark

A bottom of the table clash that everyone knew would be a huge game. Both teams were looking for their first 3 points of the season. Yet again, due to injuries and people away, we had a skeleton squad with a couple of players carrying a knock but everyone was confident that we could turn our performances into a resounding victory.

Theo made his debut in the firsts at centre–back much to the relief of Dave who was back in his orthodox Left Midfield position. Elsewhere, Seb came in for Jason due to Jason’s hammy-knack. Loz started on the right of midfield albeit suffering from flu and having worked a 160 hour week.

The team were under orders to start strongly and hit the opposition hard from the off. Unfortunately this was taken to the extreme when Ian took out ball and player – ordinarily not a problem as far as I’m concerned but it happened to be Kez. Kez was off the field for 5 or so minutes and ordinarily with a full squad would have stayed off. The alternative was to bring on an aging, knackered crock….. or me (apologies to Nigel). It took a good a while for the boys to find their shape again and we seemed to be chasing the ball a lot and frankly were looking rather ordinary. Greenwich had rarely threatened with their pressure though. Slowly we began to dominate with some good moves down both flanks and some incisive passes through to Charlie who was unfairly called offside on two out of three occasions – no doubt he would have slotted otherwise.

The break-through came with 15 minutes to half-time with a superlative free kick from Seb almost 10 yards from the corner of the penalty box. Surely a contender for goal of the season, the kick was struck hard and curled beautifully into the top right-hand corner of the net. From the sideline I thought it was Scotty that had put it away at first but soon realised the absurdity of such an occurrence. 1-0 at half-time and looking good for the win going into the second 45.

Into the second half and the fitness of LCW worked against us with Greenwich moving the ball well, our midfield chasing shadows and the forwards unable to make much headway. Loz was struggling to breathe so offered to come off to be replaced by Mark. Kez continued to battle admirably and the manager prayed he didn’t do any further damage not least because the he was not looking forward to coming out of retirement so soon. The defence held up admirably, with gritty work from the bald F****t fan and an outstanding display from Clive ‘El Capitan’ Cachia. Stefan ‘ze ref iz not protecting me’ Laux made some great saves but was getting frustrated with some of the challenges in the air although he managed to hold the ball well whilst going down like the proverbial sack of spuds albeit one that calls the ref a c*** in German (what was that again Stef?). Greenwich got the breakthrough late on with their best player cutting in from his right and slotting a firmly struck shot into the bottom corner of the goal. The boys were convinced they could get the winner though and put there all into the final 10 to no avail. Still, lots to be encouraged about, the spirit is strong and we’re convinced that the first win is round the corner!

MOM – Clive Cachia