Match report by RSe Consulting
020 7233 0608
http://www.rseconsulting.co.uk
It was not an easy afternoon for the abundant and flourishing wildlife of Battersea Park. As they were preparing for a nice Sunday afternoon in front of the fire they were hit straight between the eyes by two massive shocks. First of all their fragile systems had to take on the board a Leopards match which started on time and in the right place (and had voodoo Rob playing). And secondly, they gasped as the Leopards recorded their first win since Paddy's 73rd birthday.
So who were the victims? The Mighty Royal College of Art. Oh yes, this was a match the Leopards could really get their teeth into - a bunch of very very very tough art students. But we didn't let that cow us. In the first half, the Leopards were tigerish and pantheresque; Ethan quite rightly headed over an inch-perfect whipped cross from Ricky B, realising that such a goal would have been far too good for us to score. Ricky B then hit a post after running absolutely straight through lots of people with the ball (more on that later) and there was probably another post hit at some point. It was all such a Jackson Pollack of action.
But then disaster. Despite a beautifully timed jump, Ed mysteriously emerged minus the ball, a scenario quickly noticed (or anticipated?) by their striker who scored a cracking finish past Oli - to be fair if Oli had taken his half-time ciggies by then I'm sure he would have saved it. The Leopards of old would have crawled back into their den defeated after such miserable luck. But not the new Leopards. Back on the attack Lennaert stole into the box, after a superbly worked move which involved the ball bouncing a lot around the penalty area, to warhol the ball superbly into the roof of the net. At half time we were level but up-beat.
And just as we thought that those doughty art students had taken all we had to give they finally collapsed in the second half - after Paddy took himself off. The breakthrough came when we got awarded a freekick 4,000 yards from goal. Not a promising position you'd think but with hot-shot Rob in the team you'd be wrong. He hit probably the hardest shot ever seen at Battersea, certainly the hardest thing their goalie had ever faced - and all he could do was parry it onto the crossbar leaving poacher Kline to knock in the rebound. Then the Leopards roared. Hudgey - who had achieved the not inconsiderable feat of making the rest of the midfield look worldclass during the match - hit Ethan with a perfect pass and Ethan, forgetting the discipline of that earlier headed miss, decided to add a perfect finish to it. And finally Ricky B grunted, took the ball, ran very quickly through lots of people all over the pitch, remembered finally where the goal was and scored from an impossible angle. Really pretty good. And Dan G also made a run.
Other stuff: Oli B having done not much in the second half made a couple of amazing saves and generally lent calm authority. He's the quiet one in the family. Another quiet family member Wills came on and made a tackle, and Richard spent the game thinking hard about the spreadsheet he's going to put together for the five-a-side. |
