Northbridge A 3, Lane Cove West 1

25 August 2007, Blackman

It’s seven years since we won on the last day of the season, and this was another disappointment. We could have stopped Northbridge winning the league; should have done, too, since we played at least as well as they did. But, in the end we lost by a clear margin. (One of the curiosities of our season was that our six defeats came in just two sizes: 4-2 or 3-1).

The turning point of the game came as early as the third minute when – amazingly – its second goal was scored.

We had gone ahead from the kick-off: Mark S tap to me; back to Peter; Peter to John: John is tackled (so Northbridge did actually touch the ball) but wins through; pushes to Mark S who, under pressure, turns it into open space in the box. Everyone on the field could see that it was keeper’s ball – except the one person who really needed to see; but he stood like a statue on his line. So I stepped in and gleefully hit the ball past him: 30 seconds gone, and1-0.

But we were still congratulating ourselves on this best of all possible starts when Northbridge themselves scored. We lost the ball in their half; it was smartly passed up their right, and across to the left where a forward lurked lonely as a cloud. Wallop! And 1-1.

The rest of the first half was even: or, if anything, we had the better of it. A fair few crosses pinged in, a delicately lobbed pass that James put just over, and we reached half-time confident that we could at least hold Northbridge, stop them from being the only team to beat us twice, and so consign them to third rather than first (probably, as it seemed at the time; and actually, as it turned out: Monash and the Bears – a point behind - both won).

But, alas, it was not to be. Well though we played, the chances wouldn’t go in: notably a far-post ball that Bob was just a whisker away from reaching.

And at the other end: cruel fate. First we were denied a foul, then as play went on, a Northbridge recipient of the ball looked clearly off-side, but down stayed the flag, and on went the forward to sweep the ball past Tony: 1-2 and we were sick as parrots.

Worse was to come: I confess that I can’t recall the goal’s details, but the third went in with about ten minutes to go. Try as we might, it plainly wasn’t going to be our day.

All that was left to savour was vintage Howard tackling. I think he was upset that he had to hand back the Nobby Chopper award, and thought that one last virtuoso effort might restore it to him: only 15 September will tell.

At one point I thought that Howard might have got confused, as I did by a call: “Howard Mann, on!” Then I realized that it was actually, “Howard, man on!” We need to make the punctuation of our calling clearer, as it can make all the difference (early in Thatcher’s government there was a headline “Conservative Government Unemployment Figures” which someone pointed out would have been more accurately punctuated “Conservative Government. Unemployment? Figures”). Of course, with a number of North-Easterners in our team, we might expect one day to hear “Howard Mann, man: man on!”

These fighting qualities won Howard third in the voting. Bob was second & Matt first: fittingly, as these two have played well all season. Will one of them win the coveted trophy? Be there on September 15 to find out!

The disappointments of the last day did not overshadow the success of the season as a whole. It really didn’t seem that any of our opponents were better than us, except the Bears the first time around (and we beat them 3-0 in the return). We won more, scored more, kept more clean sheets and finished higher than for many a year; more to the point, we supported each other, enjoyed ourselves, and played some really good football.

A few final stats:

- only Tony played all 18 games.

- Tim & I were at every game, and played in 17.

- we scored in every game.

- Bob, Peter, Matt & I scored 27 goals between us. I finished highest with 9.

Finally, season thanks to:

- Tim for buying, hauling & tidying up after the drinks every week (& so being at every A’s games as well)

- Ernie for managing the subs & tactics

- Mark S for doing the 321s

- Howard, John S & Brian for refereeing often (& being linesman too)

- Peter for arranging our young employee who puts up & takes down nets every week (we forget that we used to take it in turns to be up early to do it)

- Martin for keeping the money under control

- several players for readily volunteering to miss games when we had too many: despite our early concerns, and long injury-free periods, we still never had anyone miss more than one game involuntarily

Over-45 football beckons next year. Bring it on!

MARK BRYANT