Lane Cove West 1, St Michaels 3

11 August 2007, Blackman

Today brought us down to earth, burst our bubble, took the wind out of our sails, and other depressing clichés. For the second time this year, we lost to a lowly team, never getting close to our best form. (I try not to look too often, but, yes Greenwich have still won just the one game all season - against us – which brought 25% of their goals for the whole season).

We are not now going to win the league, and aren’t even sure of finishing in the top four. Woe is us, and woeful, I’m afraid, is mostly what we were today.

The conditions didn’t help again. A mistral or sirocco, or whatever the hot one is, blew across Blackman, and the ground was bumpy and hard. But one can only think that it was the same for our opponents, who played well, and certainly didn’t look like a team that all year had won just two games (but drawn five, it is true).

Our usual slow start led to many corners to St M, and not many forays of ours up to the far end. But then James came on, looked dangerous straight away, and we began to get more possession.

And the early wobbles looked to have been overcome finally when, after about 20 minutes, Bob sent over yet another of those teasing crosses from the right. Déjà vu revisited: there I was arriving again, as Bob would have known even if I hadn’t been calling, and the downwards header was in again. (This time, though, back across the goal. I’d like to say that where they end up is the result of strategy and skill, but it isn’t: I’m happy if they hit my head and go towards the target!): 1-0.

This was my fifth headed goal this season, and the third from Bob’s crosses to a far left Blackman post. There could have been two more, just in the first half today. I had just failed to get to an earlier cross, realizing too late that if I’d thrown myself at it, I might just have connected. And a bit later, I did get a boot to another great cross, but not on target. I blame the linesman: I was distracted by his flag which was up (wrongly) from an earlier incident.

But the statisticians amongst us took great heart from our goal. This year, we’d not only never lost whenever we’d gone ahead: we’d always won. And we’d scored in 14 out of 15 second halves, so here we go, here we go!

But going was what we still weren’t really doing. We rarely strung a couple of passes together, and made basic errors in not challenging for the ball, or in having two of us do so without calling. We were all flat, and try as we might to shake ourselves up, it just wasn’t happening.

So it wasn’t a big surprise when the failure of a couple of chances to clear in our area sent the ball conveniently to the feet of a St M forward who slotted it home: 1-1 at halftime.

The second half was more of the same, but with some bright spots. Tony made a great save from a free-kick, tipping it over from just below the bar; and on several other occasions, plucked the ball out of a crowd. Matt and James chased everything, and James had some good runs. Even Martin worked himself well into a shooting position; what followed was, I suppose, the shot but…let’s just say that it lacked the precision of the build-up. Dave also found some space for shots. But nothing we did really tested their keeper.

Meantime St M had taken the lead fairly early on in the half. We missed a few chances to clear, and a sequence of defensive headers again resulted in the ball falling kindly to a striker, who didn’t fluff an easy chance: 1-2.

We pressed to equalize but with none of the fluency of our better games. The killer moment came when Bill, as linesman, ruled that I’d been offside when running onto a good pass from Eric, a move which seemed to have gained us a corner. In the play immediately after the offside free-kick, Brian lost the ball in the sun, and once more a forward was in just the right place to profit: 1-3, and no way back.

Tony & I shared third placing in the MOTM voting. James was second, and Matt first.

Thanks to Stuart for reffing our game and to Bill for relieving our subs in running the line; likewise to Brian & Steve L at 3pm; to Ernie for managing, and to Tim for doing the beers.

So a few sequences were broken today. We’ve now lost other than 4-2. We have lost a game we’d been leading. And now we’ve lost two out of eleven, not one out of ten.

But it’s timely to dwell on one record that continues. It’s now a year since we last failed to score in a game. And not only have we scored in our last 18 games: this year, we’ve scored in 26 of the 32 halves. It hasn’t been ever thus: we went almost ten months without a single goal in both 2002/3 and 2004/5; in the earlier period, conceding 28 ourselves! So this year, four of us scoring five or more apiece, and a team total of 33, is quite something.

The objectives for the season are now revised: finishing in the top four (and not missing out by a point as we did last year); and avoiding a non-scoring sequence to span into next year!

MARK BRYANT