| Cambozola � 1-2 It was a dark and stormy night in Kennington aka �Fortress Leopard� as the Leopards took on the cheesy might of Cambozola. Would Cambozola melt their opponents in a football fondue or would the Leopards emerge as their grater? For Leopards fans there was cheering news with the long-overdue return of the inspirational Alexander �call me Roy� Stevenson. Clearly intimidated by this news, Cambozola turned up late. Clearly unintimidated by the Leopards, the jobsworth groundsman refused to extend our pitch time, meaning that this humungous camembert of a match was turned into a dairylea friendly. And what of the game? The Leopards played breathtakingly. It was as if some link that they had been desperately missing had finally been restored (can anyone think what/who that might have been?). Quick passing and running all over the park carved out several chances with Bernard turning Cambozola inside out several times and JC making a tireless run. At the back, the two Dans and Mark looked impenetrable, refusing to rely on defensive cheddars but churning the ball out smoothly to set up move after move. But nothing came of it. Then Ricky B got involved. Usually these words send a shudder down the spine of all law-enforcement agencies, but in this instance it was the Leopards defence who shuddered. Without a doubt he was the Leopards player of the game (you can let go now) but in a moment of madness he passed to their striker on the edge of the box and the heroic Howard who had left his sandwich and large sofa to play at short notice could do nothing to prevent the goal. The Leopards pressed on bringing some fine saves from their goalie (Peter Stilton?) but to be fair they also provoked an extraordinarily agile leap from Howard Schmeichel. And then, against the run of play Cambozolans brie-zed into a two-goal lead. There were twenty minutes to go and the Leopards driven on by the Ginger Winger and Ben R not to mention some gently encouraging comments from our sidelined skipper fought back. Something had to give. And so it did. Some fantastic intricate work from his midfield colleagues carved out practically an open goal for Ethan - who then rounded a couple of defenders and slammed the ball in from at least 30-yds. It was a ritz-biscuit of a strike and an early goal of the season contender. We continued piling on the pressure but even the late introduction of our frisky Dutch striker didn�t make edam bit of difference. So we trudged back out into the dark and stormy night knowing that we�d played the glorious football but had lost nonetheless. Hard cheese. |