Lane Cove West 2,
17 May 2008, Mimosa Oval
Sunny Mimosa Oval was the scene of what was to be an eventful afternoon
of football. This was accentuated with a number of players withdrawing all
week.
JE got injured last Saturday and was definitely out, (they don’t make them
like they use to). Dave Kelly had something on. AV had his daughter’s birthday.
Richard got called overseas on Thursday for work, and Kez
had work commitments, (is greed more important than football, Paddles???). This
now brought our already skinny squad to absolute barebones. 10 in fact and
without our regular keeper...........That’s ok, we will work it out later in
the week, I thought to myself. The main thing is that everyone gets maximum
football, BUT we are playing the team coming 2nd and we have no idea
what they would be like.
So the call goes into Nigel looking for assistance from him in goals,
(but only for about half a game). Thankfully he was happy to oblige, but would
be late. I’ll take that.
Then on Thursday we get the miracle call. A new player
ready to register and play and a capable player to boot. Now we have 11.
Bring on Saturday.
So it’s now 12:03pm Saturday and I am late. I’m running madly to get the
beers so that I can invite the boys around to my place after the game, as I
live across the street from the park. An SMS comes in and the 1st
bit of bad news. Mick has the flu and can’t make it. He
obviously only realised 57 minutes before KO that he was unable to play.
Then 5 minutes later Big Dennis calls and says that he had to take his son to
Hospital for stiches into a big head gash, at football. Under 9’s is getting
tough. The photos later prove exactly that. So we are 52 minutes from KO and
down to 9 plus Nigel when he turns up.
Then a ray of hope JE calls to ask where the ground is. I ask “are you
playing”? No was the reply. Just coming to watch. I
take advantage of his team spirit and ask the question. “If I told you we were
down to 9 men could you come and play”. A pause and then with fear in his voice
the response. “Are you serious”..........I was as serious as cancer. He had to
track back and get his gear, so he would be late. But we are now at 10 plus
Nigel..............I love it when a plan comes together.
So we are at KO, with 9 men against an opposition who had more changes
in them than the Paris Hilton’s love life.
And they used every one of them over and over. The game starts with us
playing with a lone striker on a massive pitch, poor bloke.
10 minutes in and Nigel turns up. I suggest that
he gets changed and plays up front till halftime. So he went to change and warm
up, (I’ve seen an Olympics sprinter with a short warm up regime). While he’s
warming up we made a mistake in midfield and they got their only chance. A weak shot at the keeper which basically went under my foot.
Bad error. It was at this point that Nigel’s wife
suggested that he change to play keeper. Good move Sue. So he did.
JE finally turns up, but as he is changing Felix gets injured. So when
he finally gets on, (holding his injured shoulder), we have 2 injured players. A defender who is having his first run in 12 months. A 118kg striker who has had a massive week on the drink and a
passenger for the day. No subs and 2 of our defenders
missing..............and oh 1 nil down. At this point I had more chance going
on a date with Elle than rolling this mob over.
Anyway we held in for the first half, in a truly boring and low skilled
affair. Half time came and we could take stock of the situation and we realised
that we could beat these guys, by playing just a little football.
The second half we were a different team. More skill, more attack,
better structure and thankfully more chances.
They really didn’t ask to many questions of our
defence so we got to hold on for an unlikely win.
Special mention to Felix, who played on one leg. Big Unit who is the teams Forrest Gump, (boy
did he run). Pete Xenos for
igniting our team and theirs.
.