Str. Penelope FC 2-1 Vets 2 Written by Vets 2 correspondent

Starting Line Up;

Steve Mazurkiewicz

Paul Wrigley, Darren James, Tony Whilliamson, Alex Knott

Chris Riley, Freddy Dehombreux

Adrian Cunningham, Peter Brown, George Boyadjiev

Chris Ffinch

Subs: Ady Talib Phil Dean

A cold, wet afternoon. Muddy pitch. With Kenny absent Pete decided to change our usual 442 formation, putting himself in front of two defensive midfielders and Chris Ffinch as lone forward. And it worked very well.

We started the game brilliantly, playing up a steep hill and against a breeze, putting pressure on their defenders, keeping the ball in their half of the pitch. Two minutes into the game, we were the first to create a goal scoring opportunity – George shot the ball, the goalie did not manage to catch it well and a defender cleared it. Darren took the corner finding Adrian who headed the ball perfectly to give us the lead. Excellent start ! Next minute Chris Ffinch put through only for the keeper to make a good save.

Five minutes gone and we had had three very good chances, scored one and Penelope had not even been in our half. This could be because we were playing well or because of serious gas attack in our half of the pitch that left a curry eating cockney boy denying responsibility and everyone else evacuating the area.

Str. Penelope are a strong team and they tried their best to come back, but we were focused, defending well, passing the ball around and even had couple of shots on their goal. Adrian and George were always available on the wings and Chris was making life very difficult for their two centre backs. Tackles were flying in from both sides and both Paul and Chris Ffinch received blood injuries. Freddy and Chris Riley were really enjoying and winning a very combative midfield battle.

There were 2-3 dangerous situations in our box, but Mazza and the back four managed to deal with it, Paul throwing himself face first into a goal bound shot. That first half was one of our best thus far.

On half time, Pete asked for more support to Chris F. looking for second goal to kill them. Ady came in for Pete and 15 min. later Phil came in for Adrian. We started second half with the hill advantage determined to keep it going same way - solid at the back and dangerous on counter attack. We were more in control in the 2nd half and looked like killing the game. We had quite a few opportunities to score, one of which was an excellent counter-attack: Chris F received the ball wide right, beat the defender and crossed the ball in for George to smack against the cross bar. Tony Williamson had a storming run up the field but ran out of options at the end and Chris Ffinch, Ady, Adrian and George all had half chances to score. The midfield was getting even more combative and Freddy and Chris R had their handbags scuffles with their opposition. Darren and Tony Williamson were snuffing out any wiff of opportunity that came their way.

Just when it looked like Penelope had run out of ideas and the gas had cleared disaster struck twice. The first with less than 10 to go followed a tussle with their winger and Alex, the winger played the ball on the ground, the ref played on and the subsequent shot went under Mazza. The second in the last minute of the game resulted from the only mistake the defense made, failing to clear a ball, which their centre forward pounced onto and that was that. Gutted.

Penelope players were very friendly in the bar, the ref explained to Hughie that playing the ball on the ground can be allowed !!! and Freddy bought the local beer for us all to taste. Man of the match was Chris Ffinch with 12 out of 15 votes for an outstanding performance