was made even sweeter by BM's insistence that Asterix Reds be deducted
3 points because we weren't able to field a team for our rearranged
fixture 2 weeks ago. They even tried to claim the points for
themselves believing they still had a chance of winning the league.
Those fading hopes were resolutely stamped out yesterday after we
demolished them at their home ground. 2 headers from Adam Scott, a
long-range effort from Dave Jones and an Aidil Sulaiman penalty were
more than enough to get our 3 points back!
We started the brighter team. From the kick-off, Tom Sarginson began
the afternoon as it was to continue, by tearing their left back to
shreds. We moved well up front and created a couple of half chances
early on. But it was BM who were to score first. After we gave the
ball away, a cross to the far post was met by their wide midfielder
who finished neatly to make it 1-0. A goal against the run of play
and it wasn't long before parity was restored. Only minutes later,
Ghani Malik delivered an inch perfect ball to Terry Harris who had
peeled off his marker at the back post. His header across goal was
met by Adam Scott who bravely buried the ball in the net. Adam took a
kick in the face for his trouble and had to go off to be taped up. He
later received "5 stitches and a big bill".
Only minutes later, Dave Jones made it 2-1. After keeping possession
in their third of the field, Roy Schofield squared the ball to Dave
Jones, about 25 yards out in a central position. One touch, quick
glance up, wiggle of hips and Dave unleashed a right foot dipping
drive into the top corner. The 'keeper had no chance and Dave walked
away holding his index finger in the air confirming that this was
indeed his "one goal per season". And what a beauty it was.
We continued to dominate and after about 30 minutes we won a penalty.
Tom Sarginson had been putting the BM defenders into a spin all game
as he ran at them and jinked in and out of tackles. It was only a
matter time before he scored or won a penalty. And the BM defender
duly obliged by tripping Tom as he skipped past him inside the box.
Really, it was just a matter of time. Aidil Sulaiman - on for Adam
Scott - stepped up and slotted the spot kick neatly home to give us
the comfort of a 2 goal cushion.
We had dominated the first half and moved well off the ball and passed
the ball well. In goal, Mark Jones, had little to do but did put in
a neat and tidy performance holding everything that came his way and
coming off his line once to make a vital stop when the score was 2-1.
We did finish the last 10 minutes of the half a little scrappy and the
talk at half time was to settle ourselves down, work hard off the ball
and keep hold of the football.
As it occurred, we coasted through the second half and had a hatful of
chances to score as we hit the post, the keeper made a couple of good
saves and a few good chances went begging. We played the game almost
entirely in the opponents half and made full use of the wide Linatex
pitch and relatively lush surface to keep possession and create
chances a plenty. Our midfield and front two did all the running and
dominated the middle of the park. Aidil Sulaiman, playing up front
was always a problem and moved well off Terry Harris to get himself
into space. Terry Harris, playing his first game back after a hernia
operation, was the rock solid target man we needed. Everything we
sent his way was won, put on the deck and played to the feet of a team
mate. An outstanding come back performance. The back four had little
to do, restricting BM to a couple of scuffed shots from distance. Our
stand in 'keeper - Mark Jones - had nothing to do other than retrieve the ball for a goal kick 5 or 6 times.
Adam Scott came back on all bandaged up and looking
like a off duty Sikh. He was rock solid in midfield and it was
fitting that he was to get the final goal with his head after a good
cross from the right touchline. The ref blew up shortly after to
confirm a very comfortable win over what must be said was a rather
lackluster BM.
This win puts us on 20 points and into fourth position, one point
behind behind Vikings and BM, who have played one more game than us.
If we can win our remaining two games we can finish in second place in
the league.
On a sour note, I've recently been informed by the league that we'll
be deducted a total of 6 points. The first 3 are due to BM's refusal
to postpone our game two weeks ago when we only had 6 players. The
second 3 are at Astaka's insistence after our team went to the wrong
ground last week. In a friendly league it's disappointing when teams
behave in this manner. Clearly, with 6 points deducted, we can't
finish second in the table. However, I'd encourage you all to forget
about the 6 points and play like we still should finish in second
place. It's important that we finish this season strong. Fittingly,
our final two games are versus BM and Astaka, the two teams that have
have caused us the points deductions. Let's make sure we get our
points back and take them both to the sword in the next two weeks.
Next week, we play BM and EP on Sunday.
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