What a week that was...

I was delighted to get the call to make my first competitive appearance for the 2nd XI this season and thus give me the chance to help retain last years 'Player of the Year Award' !! Even better I was asked to captain the side. See, all that time I spend in the gym is worthwhile. 

I was provided with what looked on paper a strong team to take on Mill Hill. However the reality was that this wasn't the side that played. With a number of cry-offs and no shows on the day we waited in the dressing room just hoping to have 11 players and a kit. Fortunately when cleaning out the clubhouse last weekend I had bagged up all the old kit that was lying around and as Mick Ward still had it in his car we were able to use it (although it was a bit smelly) when there was no sign of whoever must have had the 2nd team kit (perhaps it's fashionable in Germany to go out on the town in football kit). Now we just needed a team.

We went out to the pitch with 9, then borrowed Phil McLaughlin from the 4th XI (a big thank you to Nick Platon for being so accommodating) to have 10 to start the game with. I went for a 4-3-2 formation, Warren in goal, Paul O'Grady and Phil McLaughlin as full-backs, Phil Carroll and I in the middle, a midfield of Peter Capliss, Chris Moore and Sean McCaul and a front two of Chris Dobson and Tom Krelly. It soon became more of a 4-3-1-1 as Tom Kelly dropped in to help out in midfield.

As you may expect our oppo enjoyed playing against 10 and were having long periods of possession in our half but we all defended well. Mill Hill were restricted to a few long range efforts which Warren dealt with comfortably.

My memory is not quite what it should be so I'm not sure what order the next two events happened. One saw us go up to 11 men with the arrival of Paul Holland and the second saw us take the lead. The goal came as a result of some good work down our right that ended with Phil McLaughlin crossing the ball for Tom Kelly to head back across the goal into the bottom right corner of the net.

At half time I switched Paul Holland to full-back and pushed Paul O'Grady up front hoping that his pace may get us a further breakthrough. The plan didn't totally work but we did create a few opportunities the best of which fell to Chris Dobson. It was the sort of chance Chris would normally expect himself to score but this time he screwed it wide.

As the game wore on we started to look a little tired and with ten minutes to go we failed to react quickly enough at a short corner and were punished. The short corner was worked to a player at the edge of our box and he drilled home the equaliser.

Worse followed. Three minutes from the end a counter attack from the oppo. ended with a cross to our far post where Paul Holland found himself outnumbered by 3 to 1. The oppo forward got his head to the ball and the game was lost.

On the balance of play it was probably the right result and the fact that all our sides lost today tells it own story. Most people in our side today could stake a claim for MOM for the effort that was shown but Phil McLaughlin probably just edged my vote.

I hope those on the Stag-Do had a great time and that hopefully next week everyone will be back and fully committed (as they all said they were at the start of the season) to turning out for the Old I's again. Sorry but I'm an old fogey who can't understand how anyone would want to miss a game of football even for a once in a lifetime event (at least a once in a lifetime event for David as hopefully he will have a long and happy marriage and not need to have another stag-do in the future).

Elwood Blues