Our disappointing performance was soon forgotten seeing the turnout for Pat's memorial game
Before the match report of the Vets 2 game I need to mention the Chalice vs Vets game in honour of Patrick Roosen. We all know the dreadful circumstances of Patrick's death. It was marvellous to see so many people making the effort to come and participate in the match to commemorate Patrick and it was great to renew and revive old acquaintances. Whilst we do not have his presence any more we will have fond memories.
Captain's Team: Mazurkiewicz, Wrigley, James, Knott, Ffinch, Brown, Dehombreux, Boyadjiev, Williamson, White, Currie Subs: Francey, Riley, Cunningham
Delegue's team: Mazurkiewicz, Wrigley, James, Knott, Riley, Brown, Dehombreux, Boyadjiev, Williamson, White, Currie, Francey Subs: Wrigley, Ffinch, Cunningham
Goal: Boyadjiev
Man of the match: (by decree rather than popular vote) Dehombreux
Weather: Bright sun, pleasantly warm – a lovely day for football Pitch: Firm but taking a stud. Correspondent: Stephen Mazurkiewicz
With the world having survived the various doomsday predictions for 11/11/11 the Vets 2 team assembled on 12/11/11 to see if they could survive late nights to continue some very promising results so far this season. Things did not start well however. The referee had a very strict approach on the formalities and with the pink sheet having gone AWOL he threatened to call the game off if the dreaded document could not be produced in 2 minutes. A search party hastily located the errant paper, ripped it from the opposition's delegue and, with the clock ticking, presented it to the man in black. However a bit of a cock-up on the administrative front meant that captain Ken Francey's carefully crafted tactical formation (see Captain's team above) had to give way to the ABSSA requirement that the first eleven names on the pink sheet (see Delegue's team above) should start the match.
Ken Francey had opted for a 3-5-2 formation to start with. When the game kicked off the late change of personnel seemed to have perturbed the whole team. Football is essentially a very simple game. When you have the ball you pass it to someone wearing the same colour shirt as you. When you don't have the ball you mark the players wearing a different colour shirt from you. For the first 10 minutes of the game Vets 2 seemed to forget the simple things. When we had the ball we played two touch football – first touch, miscontrol it, second touch, pass it to someone wearing a different coloured shirt. When we didn't have the ball we were marking nobody and letting the opposition collect all the loose balls and run into open space. Vets Eccusson quickly took full advantage of this. A quick run down their left wing and deep cross found an unmarked forward on the left edge of the box who put a firm shot into the corner of the net. 1-0 down after 5 minutes. After another 5 minutes a similar scenario arose. There was a sharp run from the Vets Eccusson right wing. He pulled the ball back to find an advancing forward who could tap in from the 6 yard line.
10 minutes gone and we were down 2-0. At this stage the tactical wizards realised something needed to be done. With the option of bringing on John Terry to shore up the defence or Wayne Rooney to bolster the attack not being available to us despite their being surplus to requirements at Wembley that evening, Fred Dehombreux was pulled back from the midfield to act as a fourth defender. This change of formation, along with an improvement in marking, was remarkably effective. Chris Riley was doing a good job in tracking the tricky left winger and when he did get away (the winger that is not Chris), Darran James and Freddie Dehombreux were clearing up any danger in the middle of the penalty area. The team was also moving forward with more purpose. Some good work down the left from Alex Knott and Tony Williamson saw the ball pulled back into the middle. The Vets Eccusson defence managed to block shots from Alisdair Currie and George Boyadjiev and the ball fell invitingly at the feet of Ken Francey. Ken shot and hit the net. Unfortunately it was the net beside the goal. It was a good move that could have been a goal. A few moments later it was the same situation. The ball was pulled back into the centre, shots were blocked and the ball bounced up to George who firmly volleyed it into the net.
As the first half ended Vets 2 were down 2-1 but with the goal and the improved performance there was a very real hope and expectation that we could do well in the second half. Ken Francey made the normal two substitutions at half time with Paul Wrigley and Chris Ffinch replacing Chris Riley and Tony Williamson. For the first 20-25 minutes of the second half we carried on from the good ending to the first half. There were strong forceful runs from Chris Ffinch and Paul Wrigley on the right. Pete Brown, Tony White and George Boyadjiev were picking up lots of loose balls in the midfield. Chris Ffinch took a lovely through pass for a clear run on goal only to be called back for off-side. Despite all the good work by the Vets 2 team we were not really producing many goal scoring chances. And unfortunately Vets Eccusson still had their winger who had caused us so much grief in the first half. Time and again he would pick up the ball near the half way line, make some space and then dart on to a pass from his midfield. Freddie Dehombreux was doing a manful job in stopping him getting much further and when he did make it to the bye-line (the winger that is not Freddie) fortunately the Vets Eccusson players were not fast enough or fit enough to take advantage of his pull backs. The menace was always there and with about 10-15 minutes to go a hopeful ball over our defence saw Freddie unluckily slip and the quick winger was through on goal. He shot through the legs of the keeper to take the score to 3-1.
At this stage we rather reverted to plan A with passes going astray and looser marking. 5 minutes later we were caught again. The winger made a good run and pulled the ball back to a forward who put a firm cross shot into the bottom corner to make it 4-1. And finally with only few minutes remaining Vets Eccusson were threatening on the edge of the box when Freddie decided to take away the legs of one of their forwards. There was some discussion about the placement of the wall to block the resulting free kick but it was rather academic as a well placed shot sailed over the wall and past a flap from the keeper into the net. 5-1 to Vets Eccusson. Mercifully the ref blew the final whistle soon after that. Vets Eccusson had one exceptional player who made nearly everything for them. Vets 2 had a very poor start and a very poor end to the game but in the middle performed decently (not well but decently). Vets Eccusson, because of their winger, deserved the win but 5-1 rather flattered them and did not reflect that for most of the middle of the match Vets 2 were at least equal to them if not better.
After the game, and after Patrick's game, man of the match was decided on the Zimbabwean method with Captain Ken Mugabe declaring that Freddie Dehombreux was the winner of the vote. The rest of us still in the changing room readily agreed as we all wanted to retain the land ownership rights that had been granted to us. Freddie did a great job in defence and dealt as well as anyone could have done against a very fast and skilful player. Next time Freddie, make sure that your crunching tackle is on that winger and early in the game.
