Lane Cove West 1, St Michaels 1.

27 August 2006, Kingsford Smith Oval

Sometimes the ball just won’t go in, and our season ended with one of those days.

An historic day for the club: the first time that we have fielded three over-35 teams. One was up at Brooklyn for the 20th anniversary (probably) Mullet. This took from our line-up Martin, John S, Mark S, Ernie & Steve L. But even with Bob away, Bill still injured & Steve B sick, we still had 12, albeit with Neil Disley making a guest appearance.

Also historic in that it seems that we had never graced this oval before. Wide enough, but a bit short on length.

We started brightly, with Neil often looking dangerous. One of his early shots rattled the bar: the first of our many encounters with the frame.

But within 10 minutes we were a goal down, and the dimensions of the field were a factor. The field was short enough for a free-kick from way out to soar towards the far post, but lacked quite enough length for it actually to go out as everyone seemed to expect. Everyone except a St M forward, that is: he chased it down, and his firm header beat Tony: 0-1.

But within 5 minutes we were level again. One of several promising through balls saw Matt free on the right and his shot across the keeper found the far corner of the net: 1-1. Ten goals for Matt for the season in fourteen games: undoubtedly the single biggest haul for many years.

From then on, it was end-to-end stuff (influenced by the ends not being that far apart). Peter, Neil, Matt, James & I all carved out chances, often prompted by Brian & Dave. But the shots on target mostly found the keeper resolute (even if never looking quite the stylish part). Even Howard, from his unaccustomed mid-field role, stormed into the box and onto the end of a chip from me. His snap-shot rifled just wild, and the tackle that upended him was mis-timed in two senses – it was clumsy, but it arrived just after Howard had shot rather than just before, so no penalty resulted.

Our defence was working hard, too. Jon B, Eric & Tim all played the whole game and were pretty weary by the end. St M had quite a few chances, too, but poor finishing was mostly their undoing. Tony, though, made at least one good save at full stretch to his left.

The second half was more of the same, but more so. We had by far the best of the play, but you also worried that one of their many attacks would produce a goal.

But the chances we had could have seen us 5 or 6 up. And but for the keeper they would have. It’s all now a bit of a blur, but he leapt to push a few over, parried a few then somehow gathered in the re-bound, or saw it scrambled away. He popped up for crosses, he fell at forwards’ feet. He was a miracle worker. It got boring saying, “Well done, keeper”!

But he had some luck too: I lost count of how many times the woodwork rescued him, but the most memorable was when Peter wove and ducked and shimmied and finally found space on the left for a searing shot that grazed the top corner of the goal.

It seemed like only a matter of time before we scored, but time ran down, and tempers got a bit heated as the tension rose. On we battled, never losing belief, but time eventually ran out, and a draw it was.

Peter was man-of-the match for his constant running and probing and shooting ever-so-close! Eric was second and Jon B & Howard equal third.

Will these votes be decisive in the season’s tally (which Ernie tells us was close before today)? Be there on 21 October to find out!

Just as well there are no semis as the goal that wouldn’t come would, as it turns out, have left us 4th. As it was, we were one point short, but 6th, and thus in the lower half of the table, which doesn’t seem quite right. Here is the final table:

Age 35 Division 3R

Club

Played

Won

SD

SLD

Lost

GF

GA

Points

Lane Cove

17

11

3

1

2

37

19

37

Hornsby Heights

17

11

3

0

3

50

24

36

West PymbleA

17

10

2

1

4

48

22

33

Northbridge

17

8

2

0

7

36

28

26

Northside Monash

17

8

2

0

7

45

44

26

Lane Cove West

17

7

3

1

6

33

31

25

St Michaels

17

5

4

1

7

26

41

20

West PymbleB

17

5

4

0

8

35

44

19

Gordon

17

3

1

0

13

25

58

10

St Ives

17

2

2

0

13

21

45

8

We beat the three top teams (once: but they each beat us, too). Only NS Monash beat us twice, and they finished just a point ahead. The only team we beat twice finished bottom. We played Northbridge only once: if the comp had been completed, maybe we would have been 4th!

None of us played the entire season, but Dave, Eric & Tony each missed just one game. We used only 24 players which is a fair few less than most years.

Thanks today to Tim for the beers (especially as he revealed today that he doesn’t drink it himself!). Also to Ivan for reffing & Scott for running the line in our game, yet again; and to Brian and Matt for officiating at 3pm.

Finally, thanks to all for our most enjoyable season for many a year. With the threat of promotion now past, we can look forward to next April with a place in the semis as a definite aim.

MARK  BRYANT