Team:Mazurkiewicz (G), Shiono, Macdonald, Waite, Cunningham, Glover, Lewis B.©, Taylor, Bentham, Griffith, Harbusch.

Sub:Riley Reporter: Frank Harbusch

Despite the captain being away a rather confident RBBFC Vets 1 team arrived at Tourinnes St-Lambert to go for their 3rd straight win over there on a very hot day. Brian Lewis, who never lost a game when in charge, opted for the usual Ledbury 4-4-2 formation which resulted in no goals against so far this season. Jez Bentham organised the warm up with his newly acquired training course knowledge. We might have impressed the opposition slightly with this, because we were in the driving seat of the game from the start.

However, despite having most of the ball we were not able to play to feet enough and the balls over the top were managed well by the opposition defence. 10-15 minutes into the game we managed to raise the pressure on the wings with Jez and Neil Taylor making strong runs but again could not find the forwards. For 10 minutes FC Tourinnois then had a bit more of the ball and they were pushing the offside line until the middle of the field. This resulted in nothing much for them, since our defence had another fine day and did not give away anything. Scott Macdonald was wining every header, Sammi Shiono and Adrian Cunningham did not loose a tackle and whenever they had a bright idea there was still Roger Waite to deny them a real chance.

We then started to come back into the game mainly due to a Brian “marathon man” Lewis performance in midfield. They had no time to breathe and consequently made mistakes. A couple of good breaks initiated by Glover and Lewis with Taylor, Harbusch and Griffer at the end started to bother them and just this final ball into the net was missing.

Then just before halftime Jez broke on the right, looked up and placed a beautiful cross far post just on Stewart Glover’s head and….he missed. We could not believe it, Stewart neither. Apparently what happened, and this is the truth, is that Stewart was too high in the air and when heading the ball down did not connect enough. However, that chance brought back confidence that we can score on the day. Halftime.

No changes at halftime, although Neil threatened to throw up every minute. We agreed that they looked even more tired then us and from the whistle we were now on top. They were trying everything to slow down the game, including some extremely ugly elbow checks on Riley who replaced Taylor and brutal fouls mainly against the Griffer. The goal had to come and it came.

The first two shots from Harbusch were over the bar, the third one from short range was in. It was a good goal! and this surely not because of the finishing. The build up for the goal was nice with the whole midfield passing around releasing Sammi on the left who looked up and found the unmarked “birthday kid” Harbusch in the middle, who decided that he was free enough to take an extra touch which did almost cost him the goal. Their centre defender tackled his standing food from behind, which should have been a penalty, but the shot was away and just saved by the keeper. Jez followed in for the rebound and Harbusch finally slotted the ball into the net. Puhhh, not a beauty but hey they all count!

Being in the lead and knowing we have a good defence saw us dropping a little bit, but they were too tired to oppose the game on us and they were chased around by a Brian Lewis who was now playing out of his skin in the middle of the park. We had more and more breaks over the wings. Another fine dribble by “the black flash” Mr. Griffer who belly danced around a couple of defenders before they had enough and tried to break his legs brought a free kick on the right edge of the box.

The readers should know that we have not converted a direct free-kick for a while (3-4 years I would say), so it was only logical that Mr. Glover stated to Mr. Harbusch “Don’t even think about it, we (you) are not good enough for this”. See what a little fine psychology can do! Harbusch had to prove Mr. Glover wrong of course and curved the ball around the wall in the top right corner. 2:0 and 15 minutes to go.

They then, finally, put a bit of pressure and got several free-kicks in good range which were all defended well or controlled comfortably by Mr. “another clean sheet” Mazza. They were frustrated and Riley was hit another time by an elbow with no ball around. This was the moment that Scott was waiting for to explain the fine game of football to the referee who showed him a yellow while running back-wards.

The final break of the game saw us in a 3:1 situation with Griffer having the ball, Harbusch right and Sammi on the left. Griffer decide to dribble around their last defender, which he did despite the options, then asked the goaly politely where he wants it and....just puts the shot a little bit wide. Comment by Griff to Sammi in the changing room afterwards: "When I have the ball in that last third of the pitch don't even think about it". Next game again Griff :)

A good team performance overall with nobody having a bad game puts us top of the table now! Bring them on!

MOM: Harbusch