Game 1, October 20, 2007
YC&AC Over 35s 4 v Budgies 3
New shirts shimmering like sheet metal in the sunshine, the Over 35s certainly looked the part as we warmed up on Tembeth’s Carpet before the opening game of the 2007/8 season. The same sadly could not be said of our opposition, who in their yellow bibs and tatty beards looked by contrast like mauled budgies.
Spot the ball
In fairness our opponents looked like what they were: an unlikely mixture of Japanese youth and Over 35s squad members hastily assembled to replace our scheduled opponents, Four Roses, who having named themselves after a cheap brand of bourbon presumably had better things to do of a Saturday lunch-time, like nurse a Kentucky-sized hangover. Poor show.
The Bad, the Good…
A decade ago, in the 1995/6 Premier League season, Manchester United famously scrapped their new grey away kit after just two games when the players complained they were not able to pick each other out across the pitch. The Over 35s seemed likewise to suffer difficulties adjusting to our new silvery strip, regularly shinning balls into touch, hitting fat passes over the top into no man’s land, and generally looking very clumsy indeed. Thorstein Strand’s half-hearted 30-yard hoof in the general direction of the swimming pool sort of summed things up.
A tactical adjustment at the start of the second quarter saw the team playing with more width and a touch more composure, and gradually, as the match rustiness wore off, we began to take control. Indeed, by the end of the third quarter we were comfortably 4-1 up. Our goals came from a mystery player (own up whoever you are), Marcos Perreira, who bagged two—including a clinical 14-yard finish through a crowd of legs after one poorly cleared corner—and Gordon Deas, who struck an early contender for Goal of the Season. Receiving the ball with his back to goal on the corner of the 18-yard area, Gordon turned his marker with his first deft touch and with his second fired the ball into the top right hand corner. Truly a sensational goal.
… and the Bad Again
Thereafter we lost our way a bit, the midfield players pushing forward too much looking to extend the lead while tiredness prevented them from getting back. “Blasé” would be another way of putting it. Upshot was that by the time the Budgies pulled us back to 4-2 the tide had already turned, and it was aching-backs-to-the-wall stuff for the last 15 minutes. Alan Plater (offside), Marc Bailey (apparently) and a Japanese player (handball) together struck for the Budgies to make the score 4-3, and with a bit more composure in front of goal they could so easily have won it.
At 4-3 the effervescent Plater pursued a huge kick from fellow YC&AC defector Trevor Burton-Towell in the Budgies goal, waited for the bounce to come back down and struck a first-time shot low past the onrushing YC&AC goalie Paul Blamire and oh! just wide of the right-hand post. The same upright was in just the right place again in the closing stages.
All told then it was a relief when the final whistle blew. We were off to a winning start, and 4-4 or 4-5 would have sucked.
Major thanks are owed to Magellan for their generous sponsorship of our new strip. Thanks of course also to the Budgies for giving us a game.
YC&AC: Marc Bailey, Paul Blamire, Darren Buckley, Trevor Burton-Towell, Kim Buoy, Gordon Deas, Alex Hendy, Sada Hosogai (Captain), Mika ?, Martin ?, Ed Nishiie, Marcos Perreira, Alan Plater (Supreme Administrator), Stephane ?, Anders Sjostedt, Dennis Stanworth, Thorstein Strand, Petr Vyvial, Yao ?, Peter Yang
Goals: YC&AC: Marcos Perreira (2), Gordon Deas, A. N. Other; Budgies: Alan Plater, Marc Bailey, Another A. N. Other
Man of the match: Anders Sjostedt. Combative and creative in equal measure. Looked lively and dangerous throughout.
Referees: Showed far too much leniency to the Budgies’ pointy-edged No. 8.
Attendance: Upwards of 10, some of them actually seated
By Alex Hendy
Posted by Alex 