Playing in a winter wonderland

It was a long, long wait but at last yellow wednesday returned. Sporting our new range of hatwear we all arrived at the ground, Mr Stark happy to be amongst us and also sporting a cherished NVA hat as he was warming it for Rob who was late arriving.

"Is there still snow on the pitch?" questioned Al peering through the gloom as we wandered over to the pitch. On arriving at the hallowed turf it was evident that he was wrongm but not by much. Not snow but ice was still very much present on the pitch, Bishop Burton's famous underpitch refridgeration working wonders to keep the grass fresh. Around ten minutes later Jay and his reffing fraternity had arrived, kicked some ice, shaken their heads and bogged off home. Match abandoned.

However, being proper men we were not taking this lightly and not long later a friendly 11 a side had been organised; the mighty Yellows and a couple of Angels, including their keeper, versus blacks sox and the remaining angels. As we all know unscheduled friendly 11 a side matches always finish with double figures goals wise for both sides, this is why we were all rather surprised when the whistle blew at full time and the score was 0 - 0. (I say 'when the whistle blew' I actually mean 'when we realised the Black Sox keeper had gone home'). The lack of goals was partly because the Black Sox approached the game in the same way they approach the 6 a side, attacking was a bit of an afterthought. This was demonstrated beautifully when they had a corner and there was only one opposition player in our box, looking bewildered, lost and alone like he had only gone up by mistake.

Two words can explain the lack of goals at the other end; Rob Kennington. Four excellent chances were created and four excellent chances went begging. I'm no striker but you should really be hitting the target from one yard out, shouldn't you and an unmarked header in front of goal should, surely, equate to a goal? Then again, I suppose you've got to get yourself in the right position in the first place to get the opportunity to miss chances. There were, to be fair, also several excellent saves from the opposition keeper.

The only other thing of note was the difference between words and action, umpteen times when the opposition had the ball our strikers and midfield would in unison shout 'DROP' and then, also in perfect unison, fail to move a single inch towards our goal, leaving my aging legs to run up and down not quite reaching either end in time. Team game guys. Tut.

It was good to be back on the pitch at last and nice to see big Al getting a run around outfield but worrying that we still don't seem to be able to finish, I think all of the NVA players on the pitch had at least one chance and none of us buried them, hopefully we've used up all our misses before the league proper begins. Since shooting is about all we practice pregame it should come good soon, shouldn't it?

as a little addition, below is a pictoral representation of one of my highlights of the game:





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