| Sunday 27th Sept - Chrystie Rec Bookham Colts Dads vs Midlife Crisis Barely two days had passed since the first Saga Holidays catalogue had popped through Simon Cox's letter box when Midlife Crisis took on the BCD on a beautiful Autumn morning at Chrsytie Rec. Neither the changing rooms or the showers were included in the match fee so we all stripped off under a tree and astroturf boots were the order of the day due to a very dry pitch. Midlife's Director of Football was Neil 'Mick' Buswell who had taken the morning off from managing Wolverhampton Wanderers to guide Midlife through their first match of the season. The first half was end-to-end stuff with both goalies giving a good account of themselves when required to do so and the Midlife defence looked solid as Mark Sutcliffe seemed to be able to get his head to all the aerial threats lobbed in BCD and he was ably assisted by Rick V, John D. and 'The Karate Kid' Keith S. Fit Neil was, as usual, up and down like a brides nightie as he covered all areas of the pitch in support of both the midfield and the attack in equal measure. The only point of note in the first half was when Simon 'snapper' Cox took on the role of the paparazzi and positioned himself on the far touchline with his Hasselblad whilst still wearing his rhubard and custard kit. This caused at least one offside decison to go unflagged as the linesman assumed that the Midlife player standing a yard goalside of the last defender was that bloke with the camera again. Then we saw a brilliant piece of team rotation by Neil Buswell that showed that the experience he gained managing the Republic of Ireland was being put to good use. He pulled off both John D. and Alex B. at halftime (they were only expecting half an orange) to let other players on and to give the dynamic duo a breather. Then we went a goal down in the second half courtesy of a Paul Smeeth in-swinging corner that went route one to the back of the net but the Midlife resolve did not falter. Well into the second half we saw a flurry of late substitiutions during which John and Alex were brought back on, but instead of John going to his usual postion of right-back the mercurial Mancunian moved up front with Alex to form a twin strike force that was to earn us the draw. Ali K also came on in midfield and was given the task of marking Keith 'Tricky' Watson. There was also plenty for 'The Cat' do to do as BCD kept up the pressure and he made some spectacular finger tip saves as BCD pushed on for a second goal. Then came a moment of Midlife magic as John and Alex broke through into the BCD penalty area and with some intricate passing footwork that was reminiscent of Torvill & Dean executing a Paso Doble at the Winter Olympics in Sarajevo they bamboozled the BCD defence and 'keeper before John shimmied into the six-yard box, sidestepped a tackle and passed to Alex who tapped it in from close range. BCD were still a threat and were pushing forward with long clearances from their 'keeper getting ball into the Midlife half. As we neared the final 10 minutes Alistair Lee of BCD himself with a match winning scoring opportunity when the ball fell to him just inside the Midlife 18-yard box but as he unleashed a goalward bound volley Ali K put his body on the line for his team and charged down the Lee shot which bounced off his Scottish manhood leaving a disconsolate Lee to watch the ball fly just inches wide of The Cat's far post. It ended one apiece and it should be noted that the games was played in the best of spirits with no hard tackles or back chatting the ref. Man of the Match - Mark (Sniffer Sutcliffe Match report by Ali K. |
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