John: 7
One shot, one save. Not really tested. Improved kicking.

Willy : 9
Solid in the air, made his tackles count and teased the oposition into thinking he'd score an own goal.

Curtis: 7
Won his headers, should have played the line further forward. Wayward finishing.

Duck : 7
Won what he had to, except a shocking called header second-half. Distribution could have been better

Dave: 8
Impressive debut, made some good bursts inside, missed a sitter of a header though.

Tony Milton: 7
Wasn't penetrating, couldn't phase out Dave Jones' criticisms - took one for the team to win headed clearance

Ridgeway: 8
Good rat-catching display, final ball should have better

Bill Jones : 6
Pulled the strings first 20 mintues, faded away afterwards, horrible first touches towards the end

Barry: 5
Bottled a few challenges and generally failed to get past his man.

Steadman : 5
Made goalscoring promises he couldn't keep although robbed with a disallowed goal that he should never have stole from Dave anyway.

Pixie: 5
Poor first touch left him scrapping for pieces too often.

Subs:

Waterboy: 5
Come on late didn't really do anything

Fisher: not used, claimed injury, still needs to lose weight.

Dell: disappointed not to come on.

 

	John
Willy		Curtis	Duck
Dave	Milton		Ridgewell	Barry
		Jones
Pixie			Steadman
Waterboy	S. Fisher	Dell

Despite a promising start from Heath Park, the game ended a dull affair, although Heath Park will be disappointed not to have come away with the points after dominating for long periods.

Fielding a strong team Heath Park failed to create enough chances to beat a weak Hornchurch side. Long ball tactics and poor distribution left the midfield and attack isolated from each other, and too often the game was slowed down on the wings without a final delivery.

Park's midfield dominated the early passage of play with Bill Jones heavily involved, but they struggled to turn possession into good chances. Heath Park thought they had made the breakthrough mid-way through the half when Dave Elsey burst through the Hornchurch defence and squared the ball past the keeper for Milton to tap into the empty net. However the linesman flag was up and the goal was ruled out. It looked a tight decision but the Heath Park protests were in vain and many wondered why Dave hadn't gone for goal himself. Park continued to pressure for the remainder of the half and despite forcing a lot of corners the opening goal remained elusive.

The second half was a similar affair to the first, and Heath Park were again denied a goal scroing opportunity when Steadman was played clean through only for the linesman to call it back for offside. Their was no doubt this time that the wrong decision with the linesman being clearly seen to have been drinking his coffee facing away from play when he made his decision seeing Steadman past the back line. An angry response from the sidelines forced a change of linesman from Hornchurch. Heath Park responded with their own tactical change, pushing Dave Elsey up front to try and exploit a slow defence.

The replacement linesman proved no better than the first as Heath Park saw another goal ruled when Steadman took the ball off Dave Elsey's feet to round the keeper and score. The linesman flagged both players offside but the referee ruled that only Steadman had infringed and had Dave got the final touch the goal would have stood. Neither decision looked very reliable as both players appeared to have timed their runs well.

Frustrations increased when Dave Elsey headed wide from inside the six-yard box with the goal at his mercy. The crowd grew restless and Dave Jones desperate to see the deadlock broken began to call for more shots. Curtis stepping up from the back heard the shout but his 40-yard effort flew towards the corner-flag. Bill Jones was furious, feeling there were players in better positions, and vented his anger at his old man for encouraging such wasteful efforts.

The closing moments were a little frantic and scrappy as Heath Park began to throw caution to the wind to get men forward and grab the all important goal. This nearly cost them as a mix up between Willy and John saw Willy put the ball round his own keeper only to rcover and clear it to safety. Eventually the ref called an end to what had been a rather dull match.

As the players left the field Marc launched into a scathing attack on Bill Jones who he felt had not been committed enough in his tracking back. Bill retorted with allegations that Marc's distribution over ten-yards was woeful at times. The two players then headed to seperate dressing rooms lest they come to blows after the heated verbal exchange.

Badger's Comment: Dell, don't eat all the oranges before half-time!

Supporter's Club:

Dave Jones: 7 - very vocal, but made some bad calls, especially egging Curtis to shoot from 40-yards with passing options available
Graeme: 2 - Looked lost on the sidelines
Jimba: 3 - Stupid hat, not very constructive calls
Anna: 4 - braved the dodgy sandwich from the cafe
Kerry Abbott: 10 - Little interest in game but great babysitting
Lou: 10 - Instigated pitch invasion - thwarted by Kel
Josh: 10 - Joined Lou in the pitch invasion - awestruck by Jimba's height