Leicester City at Reading Worldnet
Reading Rugby Club, Reading
19/20th July 1998
Team
LEICESTER CITY SQUAD
Reet, bods, here we go with a match report of sorts of Worldnet '98. Well we
set off with a squad of 21 players, all making our various ways and times down
to the rugby club in Reading. Personally I got up at 5am to collect Darren Thrussall
from Oadby at 6am, to ensure that we were in Reading ready for the first game at
10am. Having survived the journey down to the venue, we arrived to see that we
were in fact about 3rd or 4th there, beaten only by the overnight campers. So
we buggered off and found a greasy spoon style cafe for breakfast. (Nice wasn't
it chaps?) Anyway, we trundled back to the groun at about 9.30 and got changed
ready for the match. There then followed a mad moment where we were collared
to do some linesman duties in a match involving Nottingham F****t and Manchester
United. Now its a really difficult choice as to which team to hate the most,
but sense prevailed as I disallowed a United goal for offside (it was!), and saw
the F****t win 3-0. Off to a satisfactory start, the Scum had been beaten :)
Anyway over to our pitch to see the team sheet being pinned up for our first
game. This was against Tottenham, one of the pre tournament favourites, and as
soon as the match started we began to see why. Tottenham came at us straight
away, and we were hard pressed to keep them out, as I was called into action on
several occasions, aparrently the Reading team were shocked at how agile I am
for a biiiig man! (Wow, a compliment, cripes). Anyway into the second half and
Tottenham were still pressing forward, we were managing the odd attack on the break,
but I don't honestly think we got a shot on target during the whole 30 minutes.
Tottenham finally broke the deadlock with a good strike along the ground from
just outside the area, creeping in at the far post. We were still unable to
get into the match really, and it was no real surprise when just before the
end Spurs got their second, with Leicester pushing up, there was a mix-up between
myself and my defender, and the Spurs player nipped in between to cooly slot home.
Still, we weren't destroyed by Spurs in the way that we had been by Manchester City
at Derby a fortnight previously, so a definate improvement there. However, I think
that game took a lot more out of us than we thought, as we were to find out later.
Next up were Everton, filling in for the disgraced other half of Liverpool. Considering
that the Everton team had never even met each other before, let alone played
football, I was quite impressed with their performance. Again, we were not in
this match in the first half, as Everton built up a 3-0 cushion by half time.
Suddenly, as they took their foot off the gas ever so slightly, we found some form,
and a good move saw us pull one back with a goal from someone!!! (WHO ON EARTH
WAS IT ???). This really gave us some heart, and if only we had taken a third
of the chances we created, we would have got a point out of this game. As it
was we blew them all away, mostly over the bar, and had to settle for a 3-1 defeat.
After a break for food etc, our third match was against a Reading team fresh on
the back of a Momentous Victory against Tottenham, coming back from behind to win 2-1.
We played quite well in this game, but yet again we suffered from a host of missed
chances. Reading didn't have an effort on goal until well into the second half,
and we were looking good for at least a point. If only we could find a shot from
somewhere, I was convinced this was our game. Then the moment of horror. A defender
tried to shield the ball out about 5 yards from goal, lost it to the Reading
forward, who smashed it into the opposite corner of the net with me guarding
the near post. Arrggh! We'd done it again. Despite some furious attacking,
we just could not get the ball into the net, and we lost 1-0. Not the way the
plan was devised at all.
Knowing that both us and our final opponents The Motley Crewe were already out
of the tournament, the referee allowed us to use more subs and give everyone a
game. The game was played with an immense sense of fun, made moreso for me being
as I have played a number of games for the Motley team. Almost a similar story
to the Crewe game, we had much of the attacking, yet conceded the single goal
to a good strike from their defender, who just happenned to be playing up front
in that game. (He played the second half in goal!). Thus ended our participation in
the main tournament, which meant we (Nobby) had to organise some friendlies for
the Sunday. Before this however we had to lose the penalty shootout against
Birmingham Net.Baloos, which we duly did, with a certain player who shall remain
nameless, but is called Michael Lax blasting over the final penalty with us 3-2 down.
On to more serious matters, after showers and meals etc, the team retired to the
bar, where a Yeti's team of Nobby, Porl Coulson, Darren Thrussall and Ste Chater
won the evening's quiz, although this is subject to a rather vociferous appeal...
(You know what I mean if you are subscribed to the Euronet mailing list :) ).
Onto the Sunday, and we had friendlies arranged against Doncaster R'Sonists and
SBA (Coventry). Our squad by this time was down to the bare 11, and later 6
for the Coventry game, as more and more people gave in to injuries and knackeredness!
The first game against Doncaster was played on the same pitch as our group matches,
yet knowing the surface doesn't really help at Amateur level, so we lost 3-0 again.
Some more chances missed up front, and a now rather tired looking defence beginning
to ship goals slightly too freely. Against Coventry, we plied 5 of the Huddersfield
team into action for us, and we looked a little more solid, as they are decent
players, but again we lost 3-0, although, like the Reading match the day before we
missed an absolute HATFUL of chances. This game was most definately a match too
far for me, as I could hardly move, much less take goalkicks, as the resulting
awful kicks showed!
Final results from Worldnet for matches involving Yeti's:
Electric Yetis 0 Internet Hotspurs 2
Electric Yetis 1 Everton 3
Electric Yetis 0 Internet Royals 1
Electric Yetis 0 The Motley Crewe 1
Electric Yetis 0 Doncaster R'Sonists 3
Electric Yetis 0 SBA FC 3
My thanks for the weekend go to:
Nobby for brilliant organising and getting everyone there
Porl for organising the onfield stuff
Bernie for taking over from Porl now he has stood down
Everone else for just being there!
Special thanks have to go to the Reading team, who have done an absolutely
splendid job in putting the tournament together, the amount of work put in
must be unimaginable, without them, and the IFA people, none of this would
have been possible.
THANKS TO EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU ALL !!
Extra Information:
The oringial page for Worldnet, carrying the news etc, can be found here
The schedule for the matches in our groups and their results, can be found here
