After a battling win the previous week against Falmer Road’s finest in the AFA cup, this week the third eleven were due to revisit old rivalries with their old drinking foes and first division giants West Wickham in the Southern Amateur League Cup First Round. The two teams go back years, have traded footballing blows in the top flight and cup competitions and have given each other as good as they have got in the bar with numerous beer pong battles and darts extravaganza’s. A lot of things have changed since those days including player personnel and a third team relegation but the older spine still remained and were looking forward to renewing their old rivalry…………

BUT…first there was a small matter of Spurs versus Chelsea in the early kick off in the Premier League! 
The third team had been handed a later kick off of 4pm and this enabled a fair number of the team to gather at the Broadway to sample the delights of the Coca Cola and Orange Squash whilst taking in the match. This was a little annoying on two fronts for Bevers who was already in a bad mood having sold his Chelsea ticket before finding out the three’s had a 4pm kick off and was then further put in a bad mood having to fork out £12 for a round of soft drinks!! Still his mood was lightened somewhat when Siggy put Spurs one up and more so when Bryan walked in wearing a roll neck that went up to the ceiling……….the only thing missing was a box of Black Magic and a helicopter! Spurs ended up conceding to a John “racist” Terry header and the points were shared where on the full time whistle the pub emptied at a rapid speed.
Special mention at this point goes out to Porky who was due to make the pub but due to and I quote him feeling “very derisory” he opted for his mates warehouse where I am informed a top night before had been had by all!

The meet time at the club was 3pm for a 4pm kick of as mentioned above and everyone appeared to get there on time, which is always a good sign. Confidence is high presently with the side winning all of their league and cup games to date and the morale of the team is the best I have personally seen it for a number of years…all that was needed now was some music in the changing rooms…step up Danny Green the third team skipper who had in the short trip from the Broadway to the club managed to raid Ministry of Sound and bag a couple of speakers slightly on the large side for the third team to enjoy pre and post match like the olden days.

After a little pre match jig and get together, it was time to get back to business and focus on the forthcoming battle with West Wickham. We were under no illusions that this would be a very tough game for the three’s as West Wickham had started the season well and were also undefeated and were joint top of Division 1. They are always there or thereabouts in the shake up for Division 1 but the three’s were ready for battle.

We had to wait about 10-15 minutes for the games on grocers to be completed that were being played before our match, however after watching an Old Finchleians twat storm off the pitch giving the referee a right mouthful in protest of being caught offside (very weird) we were ready to begin our warm up (well that’s what we call it anyway!).

West Wickham had arrived in good time and were also out early enough for a decent warm up. The usual conclusions were made about the opposition from watching this and the general consensus was that they looked like a useful outfit just as we would expect for a top Division 1 team. The referee completed his usual checks and then just after a ginger rat had turned up with three cans of Stella to watch, we were all set to begin!

Skipper Green had been forced into a few changes for this week’s battle with Joe Morris and Dan Howard not available and also Paul Amico who was in Costa Brava on holiday enjoying the fact that he simply had a door on his room whilst he was shagging his new girlfriend. Despite these absentees, more than capable replacements had returned from a week partying in Ibiza in the shape of Jamie Halpin and Ian Reddington and Richard Pett was also returning after having to attend a wedding last weekend.

The team for this big SAL cup match was as follows:

1.                  Karson
2.                  Halpin
3.                  Beveridge
4.                  Keye
5.                  Nick
6.                  Bartup
7.                  Hunt
8.                  Clark
9.                  Reddington
10.              Green
11.              White

Subs:          Pett & Darren Anderton (Scott Jenkins)

Norsemen began the game brilliantly. The West Wickham side were not the biggest however Norseman were not letting them settle on the ball into every tackle first and winning absolutely everything in the air. There were two very distinctly different styles trying to be played which involved Norsemen trying to play football at every opportunity compared to West Wickham’s who appeared to be playing a front 3 trying to stretch the Norsemen back four at every opportunity with long diagonal balls. 

Norseman soon stamped there authority on proceedings and this resulted in a very early chance when a poor clearance came out to Bevers who chipped an inviting cross to the back post finding an unmarked Reddington who forced a fumbled save from their goalkeeper. The rebound fell to White who swivelled about 10 yards out only to see his shot superbly blocked by their centre half and the danger was cleared.
Norseman continued to play all of the football, however West Wickham when in the Norsemen final third looked dangerous without really threatening too much. The back four were extremely solid and the Wickham attacks were limited to shots from range.

It was only a matter of time before Norseman made their superiority count and on about 20 minutes hopeful clearance from the Norsemen back four was misjudged by the Wickham defence and Green like a gazelle through water (well something like that) found himself clean through. Green let the ball run across him and as the keeper came out to narrow the angle he cleverly flicked the ball with the outside of his right foot past the keeper to give Norsemen a very well deserved 1-0 lead.

It was a very well deserved goal, however we knew that we couldn’t take our eye off the ball and we had to continue to play the way we had begun. The midfield pairing were excellent in Bartup and Hunt winning all their tackles and second balls and we had excellent outlets down the flanks with Porky stretching them at every opportunity and Reddington making some rather surprisingly intelligent runs.

It was Reddington who then on about 35 minutes produced a fantastic piece of endeavour that led to the second goal. Another Norsemen attack was just on the cusp of breaking down when their centre half had intercepted in their penalty area, however Reddington came from nowhere to produce a fantastic sliding tackle – one of those tackles where you come away with the ball cleanly, however this was in the Wickham penalty area on the right hand side of the box about 12 yards out. Reddington was able to get up quickest and not surprisingly (on current form) he hit a left footed shot, which buried itself in the bottom corner to give Norsemen a 2-0 lead! It was a great goal and as mentioned above a great bit of endeavour from Reddington which reaped maximum reward.

The remainder of the second half petered out without further incident apart from a rather blatant Wickham penalty that wasn’t given and Norsemen went in at half time with a very healthy and deserved lead.

The half time team talk was very objective and as the back four discussed how to deal with the Wickham front three attempting to stretch the back four and also how to deal with their number 10 who was dropping deep, it was then interrupted with the sight of all sights…Scott Jenkins…a.k.a Darren Anderton in a Norsemen shirt!! Now this is an extremely rare occurrence nowadays almost as rare as Scott managing to go out and getting hit by a random girl…or maybe not! Due to the 4pm kick off Scott was able to get permission from his domineering FEMALE boss to help the three’s out and be a substitute for the second half…a little cameo beckoned!

Before that Norsemen had a lot of hard work to complete. We knew that West Wickham would come extremely hard at us in the second half and this is exactly what happened. Their goalkeeper reminded us of this by shouting out that we were a load of shit before we started the second half which was a little contradictory considering his first half performance where he couldn’t catch a cold…as Porky said afterwards…a bit of a c--t! Wickham made about 3 changes at half time and had a younger and quicker front three for the Norsemen back four to deal with, and for the majority of the first 20-25 minutes this was coped with extremely well by the back four of Halpin, Beveridge, Nick and Keye.

It was a slight reversal of the first half with Wickham pushing more and more and Norsemen relying on the pace they had on the flanks to counter attach with Porky and Reddington. On numerous occasions Norsemen had a chance to counter and kill the game off however a wrong decision or a poor final ball proved the downfall for Norsemen in their quest for the killer third goal.

With about 20 minutes left Green made a couple of changes with Pett coming on for Keye at the back and Darren Anderton replacing Reddington. Pett slipped nicely into the back two and won a number of very key headers for the three’s. Coming into a match when the opposition are piling on the pressure especially in at centre half position is very tricky and Pett managed this superbly. Anderton on the other hand managed to limp away from his first challenge………only kidding although he did actually limp away from that…he was excellent also providing the three’s with some much needed added steel in the midfield areas. 

With about 15 minutes remaining Wickham won a free kick just inside their own half which their centre half launched towards the Norsemen penalty area. A Norsemen head won the header but unfortunately it went straight to their number 10 who chested it down and then hit a low shot before any Norsemen defender could get to him which beat Karson and nestled in the bottom corner of the net. With 15 minutes left West Wickham smelt blood and this resulted in the kitchen sink being thrown at the Norsemen back four.
I have to say that the back four were excellent all day, but no more so than the final 10 minutes when they repelled attack after attack. Special mention goes to the Norseman goalkeeper Karson who with about 10 minutes to go produced a wonderful tip round the post to deny the number 10 a second goal with a 25 yard drive that was destined for the bottom corner. Carson had had a tricky couple of weeks, however this was by far his best game this week and his kicking was superb.

Norseman thought the game was done going into injury time but one last push from Wickham who at this point had 5 up front produced by far their best chance of an equaliser when a hopeful ball across the box fell to their number 10 again about six yards out with the goal gaping, however a side foot finish only resulted thankfully in his firing straight at Karson who gratefully gathered it up.

A further minute passed without any further scares and the referee blew the final whistle to the relief of the Norseman boys. A fantastic result and probably the best performance of the season and a Division 1 scalp to add to the 100% start to the season for the third team. A very hard working performance and it’s a delight to play in a team, which has everyone fighting for each other.

It was at this point that Bevers then found that for the entire 90 minutes he had been playing with a peg that had been attached to the inside of his shorts for the entire match! A lucky peg? We will never know as it was launched at Porky in the changing rooms and will probably never be seen again!

Loud music, a little sing along and a happy shower was then enjoyed by all as the result sunk in which continued in the bar for a couple of hours after the match before most of the team began to slope off. This left Green, Keye and Jenkins to look forward to a night of pulling a granny at Tesco’s country club at the very popular Eros reunion and before that the witnessing of a pool cue being wrapped round the Norsemen reserves captain’s head…perhaps that’s a story for another day!

The draw for the next round filtered through during the night in the bar and we have been handed an away draw to Alexandra Park in the second round. Before that we have an away league match next week against the same opposition that we must focus on to continue our 100% winning record. Two league games in a row now before we resume cup duties and therefore it is very important that we don’t take our eye off the bread and butter and the main objective of regaining Division 1 status!

For now WALK TALL YOU BLUE GIANTS!!!

Team ratings:

Karson 9, Halpin 8, Keye 8, Nick 8, Beveridge 8, Clark 7, Bartup 7, Hunt 8, Reddington 8, Green 8, White 7.

Subs: Pett 7, Anderton 7

2nd away match of the season for the globetrotting 3rd XI and another trip to deepest, darkest South London.
It was a lovely day for football and we arrived at their lovely plush clubhouse with over an hour to spare before kick-off. Sun shining, pitches looking lovely. Everything was looking sweet.

Then, in typical 3's fashion…..we were informed we were at the wrong pitch. And had a 20 minute hike to where we were supposed to be. Great!

By the time we walked it, got changed and got our there, it was 2:50pm. Not ideal preparation at all. The pitch was rough, and we didn't get a chance to spray some balls around and get used to it. They had managed to get a proper warm-up in and it definitely showed.

The rushed warm-up meant the Norsemen took a while to get started, and Old Paulines took advantage of this, dominating the first 10 minutes and testing Carson with a couple of long range shots. It was clear that if Norsemen didn't wake up and take a hold of the game, they were going to be punished. However, ironically it was through a mistake of our own that we went behind, under no pressure from the opposition at all. A harmless long range shot from effort was deflected and heading out for an Old Paulines corner. Keye played the ball back to Carson to prevent the corner and just before the keeper went to put his boot through it, it took a bad bobble, meaning his clearance went about 10 yards, straight to their striker to prod home with an easy finish. 1-0. Having only had his shift cancelled at work a couple of hours earlier allowing him to play, Carson was clearly gutted. 

Norsemen didn't let the heads go down, and whilst Old Paulines continued to look the better side, gradually we started to get on top, win tackles and headers, retain the ball better and eventually forge some chances for ourselves. Half-time arrived at a bad point for us, we definitely had the momentum at that stage.

Half Time 0 - 1

The HT team talk centred around how we were in the ascendency and just had to keep it going, whilst not making any costly mistakes at the back. Our passing had been slack at times, and on this pitch especially, the passing had to be better, more crisp and not overly ambitious. Following the last few weeks, everyone was confident we could turn this game around. They had 2 subs and were starting to make changes, which affected their shape. 

Norsemen came out the blocks at 100mph for the second half an equalised almost instantly. Bevers (who had turned up expecting to play in goal) capped a fine display at LB with some good work down the left freeing Clark, who drove down on past a couple of challenges before cutting inside and firing a shot off the post. Fortunately, it came straight back to our famous poacher Green, who kept his composure and finished neatly low into the bottom left corner. 1-1. GAME ON!

By this point, we really were beginning to dominate. Almost every header was won by a blue shirt, and we were getting our tackles in early, pressuring them and stopping them playing the football that had hurt us in the first 15 minutes. Almost midway through the 2nd half, the giant that is Paul Amico scored with another excellent header following a cross from XXXXXX and the Norsemen were in front. 25 minutes to go. Old Paulines began to press more for an equaliser, and this opened the game up. Both teams won corners and created chances, but it remained 2-1 and very tense going into the final 10 minutes. 
Then, something truly magical happened. A real once-in-a-season moment. A gift from the footballing gods. Sit down. Take a deep breath. Brace yourself…..

Following a scrap in the midfield, the ball broke back towards the Norsemen defence. Keye rushed out to clear, and with a Paulines player closing rapidly closing him down, he decided "safety first" and kicked it full whack up the field. It looked like it was going out of play for a goal-kick. But then it began to dip and curl towards goal…..

Their keeper moved backwards trying to guage the flight. It came down off the top of the post, deflected off the keeper's fumbling hands and landed beautifully in the back of the net. Every Norsemen player went wild. No-one could quite believe it, especially Keye himself. He was a good 60-70 yards from goal when he struck it. Their keeper was gutted to concede such an embarrasing OG.

It's not the first time we've associated Bryan Keye with the word "unbelievable", but no-one would ever have imagined it would be in a goalscoring context! 3-1! 

The last few minutes were seen out without any major scares and the final whistle was blown on another memorable Norsemen 3's away victory. A very enjoyable performance against a decent side. On we march. Striving to be the best.

Final Score:

Old Paulines 1-3 Norsemen

Showers: 6
Shared showers. A little cramped and dirty, but no complaints otherwise.
Towel rail (not heated) is always a bonus. 

Food: 9
Wow. Just wow. Huge beef burgers, tasty potato wedges and even lots of salad and coleslaw for the athletes. These things wouldn't be out of place in one of them fancy £10-a-pop West End burger joints. This will take some beating. Served with a smile and a cheeky bit of cleavage. Early favourite for Food Of The Season 2013/14.  

Beer Jug Rating: N/A
Everyone drank their own drinks this week. I don't think jugs were available. Decent bar, standard prices, large projecter TV and outside balcony smoking area.

So the first Away game of the season for the mighty 3rd XI came along on Saturday 14th September. 
Merton were the oppo in the SAL Div 2 and recalling our loss away to them last year, we knew we were in for a tough battle of a game.

So off to South London we trekked, some by train, some by plane and some by automobile (I lied about the plane bit, just thought it sounded good!)

It was a wet & windy Saturday afternoon, but the pitch was in good nick, so it looked as though it would suit the 3's brand of football (football for the people)

After being given the keys to executive changing room (it had padded seats!) the 3's got changed and got out onto the slick surface of the Merton pitch.

The game kicked off at 3pm and from the off the 3's looked in control of the match. 

Some good work by Paul Amico early on put Danny Green in on goal early doors, only for Danny's shot to fizz past the post.

Then came an early goal from the 3s. A corner was given to Norsemen and the box was loaded, Danny Green whipped in the corner and it caused mayhem in the Merton box only for a shot at the back post from Amico to ricochet off the post and onto a Merton defenders leg from 5 yards looping into the roof of the net! 1-0 to Norsemen.

The 3's then proceeded to dominate the midfield battles and won a lot of ball in the air. It was still felt that the 3's could give a bit more in the match though as it seemed as though they were still in 2nd gear.
A couple of alarms were had though maybe a bit of overplaying the ball and allowing the Merton pacey attack to break on the 3's defence, but nothing came of these couple of chances.

Then came goal number 2, a well worked Norsemen move through the midfield resulted in the ball being lashed in the back of the net by Danny Green! A great finish to a great move! 2-0 to Norsemen

Half Time 0-2 

The Half Time Team Talk spoke of ensuring that we didn't give the Merton Midfield any space to turn and run at us as that was where Merton looked dangerous.

The start of the second half saw Norsemen come out on the back foot and do exactly the opposite of what was spoken about during the half time team talk.

Merton threatened and put Norsemen under pressure but it wasn't looking like Merton were going to score and then disaster struck. 

Merton picked the ball up on the edge of the Norsemen area and had an 18 yard shot that took a slight deflection which saw the ball squirm under K "The German" and into the net. K admitted that it was an error on his behalf but he only did it to make the game more interesting.

Despite this setback Norsemen looked to still create chances and Danny proceeded to hit the post from a tight angle and Paul Amico hit a screamer from 25 yards that the keeper plucked out the top corner!
Then it came, a Penalty was awarded to Norsemen with around 10mins remaining, this was to seal the match 3-1. 

Danny somehow managed to shank his penalty wide of the bottom left corner leaving the keeper to look as it whistled past his post.

This miss gave Merton heart as they mounted more attacks and piled 3 and sometimes 4 up top. 
It was down to K to have the last word with a great save low down late on to deny Merton the equaliser! 

Final Score: 

Merton 1-2 Norsemen 

For every away match report this year we will also rate the Showers, the food and the Beer Jug Rating which is an integral part of the SAL Away Day experience.

So here goes! 

Showers: 7 
Lovely and hot and plenty of showers to go round. 
A short walk from the changing room (Bonus!) 

Food: 7 
Good old meat and pasta. 
Really tasty and Bevers didn't like his so we got seconds! :) 

Beer Jug Rating: 8 
Massive Jug. 
Kronenberg on Tap. 
Jug was quite pricey though at £22.50 
Deano and Pett got to drink most of it to themselves with a little help from Bevers as everyone else buggeredoff home (Bonus x2!)

The Merton boys stayed back to play darts and Deano & Pett enjoyed some good banter and more beer with the Merton lads. 
This led to an interesting trip home via Bits & Bobs (picture attached) where a Buddha was found (Bonus x3!) 

Next Up: 

Old Paulines Away (AFA Cup Match) 

A strong looking Norsemen 3rd XI under the continued leadership of Danny Green took the field for their first League fixture of the 2013/14 season on the small Grocers pitch.

With 4 new members making their league debuts for Norsemen, it was good to see a strong start and some good football being played from back to front.

Norsemen eventually took the lead through ‘Deano’ Bartup following some good play. Old Parks as you would expect were always fighting hard to get back into the game and drew level following a good free kick midway through the first half. Norsemen then hit back quickly with Amico getting them ahead again after 25 mins, before Amico again extended their lead. Now playing some good football creating chances that Green would normally swallow, but on this occasion his shooting boots were not on show.

A sad point was the caution to Halpin late in the half.

HT = 3 – 1

Parks came out strong in the early stages of the second half and get a goal back following some good play. This only inspired Norsemen who were far less hot headed and began to create several chances of which were continually missed by their skipper, but having said that he unselfishly set up the fourth for Dan Howard to score on his debut as a Blue Giant.

With the introduction of Roll on Roll off subs for League games in all SAL fixtures, Norsemen made use of this in the second half and from the bench White came to further extend their lead. Norsemen continued to create chances and it was Green who in most unusual fashion continued to miss the opportunity to open his account for the season.

All in all a very solid performance against a well organised Old Parks team.

FT = 5 – 2