Chiddingfold 0 Manorcroft 6 (League)
6th February 2005
‘You’d think they’d relax and enjoy themselves; they’re winning
6-0!’
Anne J, after
Manorcroft loudly appealed for a ridiculous penalty
Not such a one-way street as the scoreline would suggest.
Manorcroft, although very well organised and deservedly top of the table, are
not a particularly prepossessing team. They continually challenged the referee,
loudly appealing for penalties even when 6-0 up, niggled, goaded and mouthed
off, and generally didn’t seem to be having much fun.
Having said that, our chaps knuckled down and gave a good,
resolute account of themselves. In the opening period we rode our luck with some
last ditch tackles, but thanks to another John Terry-like performance from joint
Man of the Match Theo, and a Gordon
Banks-like one from Mike in goal, we kept them at bay. On about ten minutes,
though, we gave them a free header to make it 1-0 but within the next five
minutes some superb work from Jonathan Bt gave us two gilt-edged chances, but
each time the ball sped agonisingly wide.
A very questionable linesman’s decision gave Manorcroft a
throw-in which led directly to their second goal, but the boys kept going and,
whenever they had the confidence to keep the ball on the ground and put some
passes together, Manorcroft were opened up and looked vulnerable. Joint Man
of the Match Hassie in particular covered every blade of grass on the pitch.
Yet another one-on-one had gone begging when the referee
blew up for half-time – several minutes early! By the time it was sorted out
and play continued, the promising position the boys had worked was lost; we
nevertheless went in only two goals down at half-time and still very much in the
match.
Early in the second half Mike pulled off a brilliant tip
over the bar and at this stage it was a very even game. Unfortunately their
linesman excelled himself again with a second dodgy throw-in decision which, yet
again, led directly to a Manorcroft goal.
The game was beginning to slip away when the boys went
through a terrible ten minute spell and conceded three goals – the first a
jammy one in off the post, the second a goalmouth scramble and the third brought
about by static defence.