Lane Cove West 3,
Another great team
performance; and a hard-fought win against opponents who started the day top of
the table, with 27 goals to their credit.
And you could see why from
the start. One forward, in particular, was big and strong and skillful. Though we avoided our frequent slow start, and
had some promising forays of our own, a couple of through-balls to him produced
the best chances of the early exchanges. One of them had Howard upending him
unceremoniously on the edge of our box. Even Howard says that he would have
sent himself off for it (“But I had to do it. I knew he was going to score”);
deep sighs of relief ensued when referee Scott saw it differently (and didn’t,
as a compromise, give a penalty, as might have been tempting). The free-kick
came to nothing, and we continued on with the full complement of 11.
But it was no surprise
when, after about 20 minutes, both the forward and a well-placed pass managed
to avoid Bob at sweeper, and Tony was left with no chance: 0-1.
But we continued to press
on in the windy and cold conditions. (Which had led, before the game, to a
chorus of, “When I was young, we used to come out of t’pit
at dawn, scrape ice off t’field…” etc. Not that these
recollections made us feel any warmer today: there was a distinct reluctance to
remove any of the 4 layers of clothing. On the other hand, we should recall
that, in
As in those other second
halves, the key to our success was attacking. For the next 20 minutes or so, it
was all us, marauding through the dips and ruts that are the far end at
Blackman. And in those 20 minutes we turned the game around. A typical move
that had involved most of the mid-field and forwards, not exactly flowing, but
fighting, saw the ball come out to Dave C on the right. His shot or cross (it
didn’t matter which: lobbing towards the goal was the right play) had the
keeper groping, and his best efforts merely had the ball drop in front of me
all alone at the left hand post. Bang into the back of the net, and it’s 1-1.
(“Guardian Weekly” points out this week that we’re always hearing about the
back of the net, but asks the good question: where is the front of the net?!)
Better was to come 10
minutes or so later: one of those moments when time seems to slow down. Peter’s
lob I think it was, or maybe Bob’s, is heading for the penalty spot. The keeper
calls for it. Sensibly, his fellow-defenders stand back. Up goes Matt, knowing,
as he said afterwards, that there was a good chance that his progress up would
be rudely interrupted by a flying keeper; but (like Howard earlier) “you just
had to do it”. Bravery is rewarded. The keeper hasn’t made it. Matt has. He
reaches the ball unimpeded, and his header arcs oh so slowly, but oh so sweetly,
over the keeper, and into the net (possibly the front of it, now that I think
about it, as it bounced in); and we’re 2-1 up.
The statistic that could
have inspired us at this point is that, whenever we’ve hit the lead this year,
we’ve never looked back: a draw early on, but since then, going into the lead
has always produced a win. (It is, of course, an undeniable fact no-one wins a
game without having gone into the lead, but the converse is not true: look at
what happened to our opponents today!)
But it was by no means all
plain sailing, not least because our numbers now began to dwindle. First
Howard, & then I, did left hammies (and it was no
day for sitting on a bag of ice, we can tell you!). Then our opponents finally
had an attack, and it was that man again who converted smartly: back to 2-2
with still a long while to go.
Now there shone through
both the unexpected sun and, less surprisingly, our gritty character (born, in
some cases, on those ice-covered slag heaps of England; and talking of births,
happy birthday to Dave, and a fine present today’s win was). We didn’t get to
where we are today by defending, so up the field we continued to press, and
chase and encourage. And another fighting move saw the ball pushed to Mark S in
the area; round a defender, keeper to beat; shot wide of his flailing right
hand: 3-2 and general rejoicing.
Now time seemed to slow
down again (not quite as bad as England v Argentina in Sapporo last World Cup:
I swear time went backwards after Beckham scored the penalty; and you wonder at
the sense of travelling half way round the world to see a game that makes you
feel sick and you want just to end. But then it does, and we’ve won, and you
know you’ll do it all again in four years’ time).
Defending was the pattern
of most of the remaining game. Once again, Tony made some great saves through
good positioning and standing tall; some fine relieving clearances, too, both
from the hand, and the occasional hurried backpass.
But then Tony’s style as a defender was always commendable: hoof the ball away
first, then think about other options after!
There was time for a few
more scares, and a couple of shots just wide of our posts; but then the happy
final whistle.
The usual suspects featured
in the man-of-the-match voting: Mark S, Matt (both now on 5 goals) with Bob
well clear in the lead again: a masterful performance from him, particularly
against the tricky forward.
Thanks to Scott & Paul
for officiating for us, and to Brian (at short notice) and Peter for the
So here we are at the
half-way mark of the season. We’ve won 3 of our last 4 (and, as we all know,
that should have been 4 from 4: the three points that Gordon took from us are
still the only ones they have). We’re 5th but only out of the top 4
on goal difference. We’re just three points from 2nd, but only one
point from 8th! It’s very tight. There’s no-one we can’t beat in
this division, and it will be disappointing if we don’t make the semis from
here.
MARK BRYANT