Team: Sejersen, Eriksen, Macdonald, Mazurkiewicz, Morris, Taylor, Ledbury, Glover, Waite, Maybrey, Harbusch. Sub: Praestegaard

There was a rare air of optimism in the Vets 1 dressing room before this game. An excellent draw two weeks before against the 2nd in the table and a late winner the previous week saw the team looking to extend its unbeaten run to three games. There was hope that a late surge in form would see the team win its last 3 games and escape relegation. This optimism was only slightly dampened by shirts which did not seem to have been dried after the rain from last week.

On the pitch Scott Macdonald briefed the defence on the potential problems. “There’s this short, nippy striker. That guy with the black hair. Brian can you mark him.” And so the defensive strategy was defined. The game started gently, both sides using the first 10-15 minutes as a warm up, some light sparring but with no great effect. The short, nippy striker was being very good at being short but showed, at this stage, no signs of being nippy. Stuart Glover was gathering a lot of possession in the midfield. As the game progressed and speeded up Roger Waite started to make some good passes to the wings, Ian Maybrey was as ever fast and tricky and there was some nice control from Frank Harbusch but still no real penetration. Then Pharma forced a corner. The ball was swung in and with a bit of confusion in the defence the ball trickled slowly beyond Tommy Sejersen and Carl Ledbury and barely crossed the goal line before it was cleared. The referee, excellently positioned on the edge of the penalty area, must have had some Russian blood as he judged that the ball had crossed the line. A bit of a defensive slip. Vets1 0 – Pharma 1.

A few minutes later further problems. A quick pass out to the Pharma left wing saw the other Pharma striker elude a (mistimed) lunge from your correspondent and a fast break into the penalty area saw a pull back beat the diving Sejersen. The nippy striker, nipped in and nipped a goal with a tap in from the 6 yard line. Caught out by a fast break Vets1 0 – Pharma 2.

And so half time came. Despite being 2-0 down we felt it was an evenly balanced game and we could come back in the second half. Carl Ledbury had been sandwiched in the fast half and had fallen heavily, leaving him with a knee swollen to the size of a grapefruit. Johan Eriksen had tweaked a muscle so there was the oft repeated scene of Vets at half time discussing who was more injured and should come off. “Well it’s swollen but it doesn’t hurt – I could stay on”. “I’ve tweaked it, I won’t be able to run as much – should I come off?”. They breed them tough up North. So Ole Praestegaard came on at right back for Carl and Johan moved up into midfield.

And so the second half started with a slightly rearranged formation. Johan was as good as his word and didn’t run around as much but he did pick up a lot in midfield and distributed it well to the forwards. Roger Waite started to push forward and had an excellent turn and shot which brought an outstanding save from the Pharma goalkeeper.

And so dear reader we come to the case of the lesson not learned. Pharma got a throw-in in their own half, our defence had pushed up so Pharma launched a long throw towards our goal and the short, nippy striker nipped in front of the whole defence to get a run on goal. Much desperate sprinting forced the nippy striker wide and the danger was cleared. Lesson to be learned, don’t push up too far and mark the short nippy, striker.

Five minutes later Pharma got a throw-in in the same position. They launched a long throw and, you’ve guessed it, the short, nippy striker had nipped through and was on his way goalwards. This time the defence’s legs could not move fast enough and the nippy striker nipped round Tommy Sejersen and nipped the ball into the net. Done by a long throw Vets1 0 – Pharma 3.

You would have thought that by now the defence would have worked it out. But no, five minutes later, same position, same tactic. The nippy striker yet again nipped into the space left by the defence. This time there was an excellent diving save from Tommy Sejersen nipped the attack in the bud.

Fortunately there were was not much more time to go and even more fortunately there were no more throw-ins for Pharma. The midfield and attack tried in vain to score but it never quite worked today. Maybe we weren’t quite nippy enough and maybe a bit too tall as well.

And so the final whistle. Vets 1 0 – Pharma 3. Despite the score it was a fairly even match. Pharma exploited their opportunities better than we did which gave them the edge and the win. Sadly this then meant that Vets 1 would not snatch safety from the jaws of relegation. Pharma wished us well and hoped to be able to play us again in two seasons. (I presume they meant that we would be promoted next season rather than they would be relegated). An enjoyable game with a disappointing result.

Brian Morris won man of the match for his valiant efforts to mark the short, nippy striker.

MoM - Morris