Team: Sejersen, Eriksen, Morris, Macdonald, Waite, Guarnaccia, Bentham, Ledbury, Taylor, Harbusch, Gutierrez. Sub - Shiono

With 4 wins from the first 4 matches, the vets 1 bandwagon rolled into Audgerghem for match 5 of the season. Eriksen reminded everyone that he had scored a hat trick at this pitch a year or two ago and immediately rummaged in the kit bag for the number 9 shirt. However, a recent kit overhaul has left us bereft of single digit shirt numbers and he had to settle for the much coveted number 27 shirt and a place at right back.

A wet day made the astroturf pitch a little difficult to play and a few misplaced passes were made in the early part of the game. Despite that we had quite a lot of possession and looked threatening. Ledbury and Guarnaccio began to take control in the middle and things looked promising. A nice piece of play involving Taylor and Gutierrez created an opportunity for Harbusch who had timed his run well but was then victim of a poor offside decision. The ref, a little chap who looked like he probably worked in the commune in charge of the typewriters but enjoys being the boss on Saturdays, had a peculiar obsession with throw ins. Both Eriksen and Morris were penalised after the ref vaguely indicated where the throw should be taken from then blew up after they each took about one step from the apparent spot. Eriksen’s protest was judged too vehement and this gave the ref the pleasure of putting his name in the book.

Defensively, we were solid and Sjerson didn’t have much to do with the 4 in front of time keeping things pretty tight.

Half time 0-0

In the second half we kept pushing forward looking for the opening goal but unlike previous weeks couldn’t really create any good openings and test their goalkeeper. Bentham and Gutierrez switched sides to freshen things up but the opening goal remained elusive. To be fair to our opponents, the changes they made at half time seemed to strengthen their side and they saw a little bit more of the ball and put us under a bit more pressure. Ledbury was a bit unlucky to follow Eriksen into the book after a fairly innocuous midfield challenge. Waite came off with a strain midway through the second half to be replaced by Shiono, whose cameo appearance was impressive enough for one team mate to award him a MOM vote.

Late in the game Auderghem had their only real dangerous moment when a miscue from Bentham landed at the feet of their centre forward not far outside the box. Macdonald dashed back to challenge and was judged to have fouled and another yellow card was administered. Our defensive wall remained firm and we weathered a late storm for a share of the spoils. MOM Macdonald edged out a England shirt clad Ledbury on a tough casting vote. Full time 0-0

MOM – Macdonald