Team: Steve Mazurkiewicz, Bruce Ross, Kevin Hyde, Scott Macdonald (capt), Alex Knott, Hugh Gallagher, Dermot Gallagher, Patrick Roosen, Masami Shiono, Neil Wright, Philipo Antonicoli: Sub: Duncan Taylor

A number of players away / injured meant a new(ish) line-up for Vets 2 this weekend. The ‘coach’ on the sidelines in the form of Jimmy “the mouth” Donnelly took the decision of changing to a 4:3:3 line-up. Defence was more or less as usual, Maza in goal, and a back four of Ross, Hyde, Macdonald and Knott. The young midfield both Gallaghers + Roosen, had to do all the work! leaving Wright, Shiono and the ‘new boy’ Philipo to go get the goals.

Before (and even after) the game, Pangloss’ position in the table was much better than ours, but even from the off, their team looked to be beatable. We played up-hill for the first half (albeit on a good enough grass pitch… what is this strange green stuff?), and after a few scares in the opening 10 minutes due to two fast Pangloss forwards (Knott and Hyde were the lucky guys left to mark them), we had more of the ball and were using it more effectively. There was some very good pass and move in the Midfield, and the pace of Wright and Shiono upfront on both flanks meant Pangloss were not happy at the back! There were a number of close calls / frantic clearances and corners won for us, but without reward (Scott came very very close with a header just wide of the far post). Still, it was Pangloss who scored first when a throw-in landed between 3 of our players, none of whom reacted, was passed to the striker on his own for a free shot from inside the box! 0-1 whoops!

Jimmy “the mouth” shouted his encouragement to get back into the game, continue the work, which we did and this resulted 10 mins later with a goal from a Sami cross which went in off a defender. More encouragement (bordering on abuse) followed from “the mouth” to get ourselves in front, and just before the break we scored when a corner was not fully cleared, was deftly chipped back in by Philipo and then headded in by Kevin Hyde!

Second half started with Duncan coming on for Philipo (Scott moving to centre-mid), and though the passing and movement was not as sharp as the 1st half, we started well and had good periods of dominance. Sami and especially Neil were still making life difficult for them at the back, and having to play up-hill in the 2nd half was making it harder for Pangloss to find their 2 quick forwards. We continued to win corners, but couldn’t convert any of them (all well taken though!). Encouragement from “the mouth” was now simply abusive. As the half continued, though, it got more and more scrappy. Pangloss started to push for an equalizer, which left them vulnerable on the counter. We had 3 or 4 chances to finish the game (2 shots wide from Neil, 1 from Hughie, 1 from Sami), but couldn’t pull the trigger! Passing was starting to fail, and with 15mins to go we were 10 (Bruce Ross coming off with a hamstring injury).

‘Encouragement’ (sic) from “the mouth” was now a portent of doom (sounding remarkably like Pte. Fraser from Dad’s Army), “…you will LOSE because you failed to take your chances… burn in hell for an eternity etc. etc.” Last 10 min saw pretty desperate defending as Pangloss pushed more bodies forward for the goal, but for all the panic, Maza actually didn’t have a save to make.

Overall a well deserved victory. We played well enough over the game to win it. Pangloss looked to have some threat earlier on, but this was snuffed out by the end. If we had taken just one of our chances in the 2nd half it would have been a less stressful game!

MOM was Neil Wright (he didn’t score, but he sure scared them and worked tirelessly to keep pressure on their defence).