| Sunday 19th April - Chelski Traing Ground Midlife Caledonian 3 - 1 Oxshott Vets Alan Hansen once said that you win nothing with kids but he had obviously overlooked the benefits of having Ben D. from Fausto's Epsom AC in your team. Given that Oxshott are one of the teams who tend to field a couple of younger players we felt that it was time that Midlife redressed the balance and although Ben is well short of his 40th birthday his youthfullness was compensated for by the fact that there were a few players in Midlife who are touching 50 and the defence had their work cut out to keep Oxshott at bay. Ben's hattrick was the difference between the two teams. His pace was just too much for the Oxshott back four and he simply accelerated away from the tackles and slotted the ball past the keeper for two of his goals. A third goal came courtesy of bending it like Beckham round the 'keeper. Ben's pace was refresing to behold as for most of Midlife we only use the word 'pace' in conjunction with the word 'maker'. The Midlife defence did well to handle the various attacks that were launched and a sterling performance by Andy B. helped keep the Midlife deficit to just the one goal. The game was not without a couple of flash points as things got a bit edgy at times and the Ref had to step in at least once to calm things down. All in all a great match to finish the season. Well played the lads. Man of the M\atch: Andy B Manager of the Month: Simon I. . . . and a few words from the Midife manager . . . We had a great squad, from which a very hard working team secured victory against an Oxshott team which contained few weaknesses and usually sweep all before them. Yes, there was a little argy-bargy but nothing of consequence and they were particularly magnanimous in defeat, even inviting us back to their clubhouse for free grub afterwards. It was a beautiful day, if a little too hot for football and the surface was �firm to hard� � certainly not the spongy crap they had to contend with at Wembley. The �men of the match� were Andy and Ben, but everyone worked their nuts off to keep us in the game with notable performances right down the �spine� of the team from Mark, Paul and David as well as Rick - who coped so well with the striker who Oxshott brought on in the second half. We rode our luck but could have won by more. Mike and Hollers had to retire at half time but we had enough to carry the day through the good offices of Fausto, football agent, extraordinaire. Thanks Rick for looking after the kit and to you all for turning up and making it easy for me. |