Lane Cove West 1, West Pymble B 1

28 July 2007, Blackman

Another first, today: referee talked out of penalty by player to whom it was awarded! Read on.

A typically windy day at Blackman – blowing right across the pitch. (We’ve all heard of a prevailing wind, but isn’t it suppose to blow in other directions at least now and again?). Bright sun, pitch hard again, and bumpy: not ideal conditions for our silky skills.

And sure enough, the early exchanges were scrappy, with the ball hard to control, and not much sticks in the mind from the first half.

Other than two good chances for both sides. Ours both came from free-kicks. One Brian flighted one over with most of the wind behind it, and I just failed to make contact at the far post. Later Bob sent over another which I headed down towards the same far post – but just past it, rather than in. (I’m sorry if these highlights involve me unduly. It’s not that my bits are important. But they meet the vital criterion that I can remember them. As always I’ll be happy to report later whatever I’ve missed, as long as someone tells me what it is).

At the other end, Tony skillfully thwarted our opponents twice. One fierce shot with all of the wind behind it he managed to push onto the bar. Another from right in front he was able to hold onto, in the face of onrushing opponents.

So this was only the second goalless half of the season (the first was two weeks ago when we won 1-0, and when you think about it for a while you’ll realize that a 1-0 result has to have a goalless half. But only the one).

The second half began with 15 minutes of sustained pressure from us: they hardly got the ball into our half, let alone had a meaningful attack. As usual, Bob, Matt, Peter and Mark S were at the heart of most of out attacks. Bob slipped a lovely through-ball for Mark S to run onto in the area, but his shot was well over. Then Bob saw a good shot in the area flash just past the left post.

Their ‘keeper had already saved several promising shots when he performed a minor miracle. More good work by Bob on the right had led him to send over another of his telling crosses. Mark S leapt agilely, not only to get to it, but to send a powerful looping header over the ‘keeper; or so it seemed. Somehow, he flew across and just pushed it over.

So sustained pressure came to nothing, but worse, with almost their first attack of the half, W Pymble then scored. We seemed to have repulsed its first wave, but a mix-up saw it only partly cleared. It went quite a way out, but was then thumped back hard and low and into the net: 0-1.

Now we shouldn’t really have worried at this point. We weren’t about to lose 1-0, as we only ever lose 4-2. Nor were we going to fail to score: we had scored not only in every game this year, but also in 11 out of the 12 second halves. But nonetheless, sitting on the sideline, as I was at this point (wise Ernie ringing the changes again) I confess to a small concern that maybe our moments had come and gone, and this was not to be our day.

But – perish the thought! Within a couple of minutes Matt had got us back on level terms. Some good build-up work saw the ball break in the area. Matt says that when he saw it sitting up nicely for him, he smiled nicely back at it, then lobbed it sweetly over the ‘keeper: 1-1.

Things got a bit heated around here. Howard, a little earlier, had rather hacked a forward as he went past (or didn’t, as it turned out). W Pymble dished out a bit in reply, and later we had the unusual spectacle of Bob, Peter, then Eric, getting involved in incidents that gave offence to our opponents. Eric even gave a small push in the aftermath, but none of it was really nasty, and Gareth the ref wisely confined himself to one yellow card (not to us) and several warnings.

Next followed a slightly wobbly period for us. We struggled to clear the ball, and were lucky that W Pymble could not convert the resulting chances.

Then, with a couple of minutes to go, came the controversial penalty incident. It’s rare to see a ref talked out of a penalty that he’s awarded. But it’s now happened twice in our games this year: both times at 1-1 towards the end of the game, with Gareth as the key official. Earlier in the year, when linesman, he persuaded the ref that he had been wrong to award a penalty against us.

Today was even odder. Matt, going for the ball, was impeded in the area and ended up sprawled on the ground. No controversy so far, and no doubt that a kick to us was the result. Penalty, said Gareth, and up strode Peter, doubtless to slot it home coolly. But no, said Matt, he only obstructed me, didn’t foul me, it’s an indirect free-kick. I’m not sure that it looked that way, but Matt was in the best position to know and all credit to him for speaking up. (Definitely a first, though we did concede a hand-ball penalty some years ago that our opponents’ captain intentionally hit wide, after the ref would not be persuaded to correct a clear error. So credit to Gareth, too).

So it was an indirect fee-kick to us in the area, and poetic justice would have been for Matt, or perhaps Peter, to score from it. Which Peter oh-so-nearly did. The ball was rolled to him and he lashed it top right. It was clearly bottom half of the bar that it hit, not top half, as its next move was downwards, but out not in, and it was then scrambled to safety.

It was the last good chance of the game, so 1-1 it finished.

Bit of welcome variety in the voting this week. Eric was third for firm tackling and battling hard. Jon B was second – another strong sweeping job. But that was enough encouragement for defenders: Matt was man of the match, not just for the goal, but also for running, energy and creativity.

Thanks to Gareth for refereeing, to Steve W for running the line in our game, and to Howard and Steve B at 3pm; also to Ernie for organizing the subs (never an easy job when we have three) and to Tim for doing the beers (a job which has him staying to the end of every A’s game; resulting in him being awarded their three points last week as no-one else deserved them, and he did!)

MARK BRYANT