Chenois vs RBBFC Vets 2: 1-3

Line up

Mazza

T Williamson, P Wrigley, C Riley, A. Knott

P Antonicoli , P Brown, F Dehombreux, G Boyadjiev

T. White, C Ffinch

Subs: A Currie, D Leigh

Delegue: Hughie Gallagher

Once again, clear blue skies, sunny weather and… unlike last week no ref this time.

Photographer Joe , just in from Afghanistan with Tony White, and Hughie fresh in from hospital settled in on the touchline to form a capacity crowd....full of anticipation.

Captain Pete made it clear from the beginning: no slow start this time, let's go for it from the 1st minute and try to make the difference early. So we did pressure the boys from Waterloo quite high and managed a couple of occasions which their keeper parried with some unexpected agility.

We did some things right early on, passing the ball nicely, controlling the game, good defensive cover until Tony White lost the ball right in the middle of the pitch when there were easy options to retain it...must have been the chopper lag...and what was he doing back there anyway ? ?...and thus Chenois, on one rare occasion looked a bit dangerous and scored. 1-0 to them. A good lesson in what happens when you lose the ball when all seems safe leaving all defensive colleagues on the back foot ....nobody there seemed pleased...poor Tony....but the co-writer is taking your scalp this week as way of example in the hope that it may prove educational (a dream maybe ?).

We didn't, however, let ourselves sink into a depressive mood and started to work again from the scratch. We looked more and more dangerous and on one counter-attack, Tony White beat (did he actually?) the offside trap on a nice thru ball from Pete Brown and finished the job tidily to quickly redeem himself. 1-1 In the dying minutes of the first half Chenois started to up their game, Alex became stretched as they attacked down our left but Alex supported ably by Paul held firm and kept the score level at the break.

As stated in the pre-match talk, Captain Pete made 2 subs at half-time, took himself and George off to bring on some fresh blood under a quite spectacular heatwave given the time of year.

The few spectators who managed to witness the 2nd half of this game were lucky enough to watch what I would describe like one of the most entertaining halves I've ever seen in Vets 2 history. The formation was reshuffled a bit, Dave L played at right back while Tony Willamson was pushed into left midfield and made good use of that flank and Patrizio moved slightly forward in support of the strikers. It is honestly hard to say who played best in the second half as everybody had a fantastic performance. The centre of the park was locked, and we started to use the wings a lot better. Tony Williamson had a couple of runs on its wings and created havoc on his side, even testing their keeper on a couple of occasions early on. We had two penalties not whistled in a row from clear handballs and then Patrizio had to limp off the pitch after his knee took a knock. With no subs left, we were down to 10 men.

So we tried to carry on playing as well as we could and managed to look dangerous on a couple of occasions until one of Chenois' players had to leave the pitch on injury as well. 10 against 10! Now let the show begin!

The rest of the 2nd half was played quite exclusively in Chenois' side. Ally, Tony White, Chris Ffinch all had a go at their keeper. Their old looking goalie was truly impressive and managed to keep all balls away from his nets, sometimes in style, sometimes with the help of a defender. And boy! How hard we tried! Still 1-1.

Then Dave L, took his responsibilities and played the ball carefully across the back four and from then on the ball weaved its way thru everyone on the left side then via Ally and Tony to Chris Ffinch whose nice left sweep found the left / middle of the net. After what may have looked like one pass too many Chris controlled the ball perfectly, turned and slotted the ball away perfectly ...a very good team goal! 2-1

This triggered some kind of reaction from Chenois who looked a bit more dangerous and went looking for the equalizer. Despite that we were still working hard on their keeper's agility but he stood firm. Then first Chris Riley made a critical sliding tackle on a guy who in a previous game had skinned him and then Mazza made a decisive save one from a counter attack which definitely kept us ahead and boosted our lust for a third goal. Through out the game the defence had been strong, superbly marshalled by Paul and for these few minutes they kept us in the game.

Then goes Dave L once again on his right wing, running, dribbling (showing off really…) then close to the corner flag, Dave L delivered a perfect cross at the second post where Tony Williamson's power forehead literally catapulted the ball into the net (I think he tore the net). 3-1Victory was ours! Excellent 2nd half albeit against a weak team.

It was a true pleasure to be part of this team performance this Saturday, the team spirit was really high and everybody, after settling down, did their job . Mom was difficult to pick and in the end it was Tony Williamson who emerged in front of Chris Ffinch and Fred Dehombreux as close runners-up.

Mom: Tony Williamson