Another important game in the context of our league position, with AP seeming to win every game they are playing at the moment.
A difficult week with Williams, White, Howard, Reddington and Robery all missing.
We welcomed back Bevers, and Zak came in for Jack.
Crouch End started well with their obvious plan of flooding the midfield and lumping the ball forward wherever possible, which we sort of expected.
We stuck to our game plan trying to stretch them out wide and this paid dividends.
Porky latched onto a through ball and managed to race into the box, he decided with his new found confidence in goal to attempt to beat the keeper with Green square. The ball scuffed off of a defender allowing Green to find the bottom corner with the outside of his boot for 1-0.
We continued to press, and another goal came from a long throw! Chris launched the ball towards Lee who flicked the ball into the 6 yard box, and with the keeper deciding to stay rooted to the spot Amico had the easy task of nodding home for 
2-0.
We looked fairly comfortable with no shots or major threats until Zak came about 100 yards off his line to try to intercept a ball and completely missing it allowing their forward the simply task of making it 2-1.
HT 2 - 1
The HT team talk was fairly positive, with the obvious saying that the next goal is crucial being bandied about.
We started well again, with Lee winning every ball in the air and Deano snapping away as usual. 
We eventually broke them down with a long ball played into the area, Green managed to get his ripped frame in front of the defender before the ball dropped from the sky, he then managed to flick the ball back into the path of Amico, who despatched the ball with his left foot low and hard into the corner.
Game over – or so you would think.
They still had time for a pen miss, which also resulted in Nick being sent off (unfortunately) for accidental handball on the line. Basically the ball was blasted at his hand from about 10 yards.
The sending off was harsh in the context of the game, with Vamps up to their same old tricks of kicking out leaving their foot in and in general being a___holes. And as always seems to be the case with the refs nowadays getting away with it. Ross got booked for getting kicked 3 seconds after the ball had gone… Green also got booked for telling the centre half that had just taken him clean out through on goal that “he’s ridiculous”. But Nick gets sent off… ref’s seem to be getting gradually worse, whilst the captains in the club take the flak for bookings etc…. 
Anyway, their number 9 stepped up to take the penalty with Green, Pett, and Bevers giving him all sorts of stick “one step” “don’t slip” “Ian Shite” were a few, he then managed to balloon the ball 10 yards wide and over.
There were a couple of half chance after that, but nothing of note and the messy 3’s collected the 3 points to move up to second a point of AP at the top.

Onto the SAL cup next week against AP, where a win will carry us into the ¼ finals.

Walk Tall

After last weeks fairly straight forward win the 3's were back in cup action against Reigations AFC.
Admittedly we had never heard of them, and our homework led us to believe this could have been fairly straight forward.
Difficult week with 17 players available to skipper Green, but a problem you want more often.
Team was pretty much the same as the previous week, with Lee coming back in for Williams the only change.

Reddington and Howard returned to make it definitely our strongest squad this season.
Back on our "home" pitch over the allotments this allowed our midfield to get on top of the opposition from the kick off. 

It only took 5 mins for the pressure to tell.
Good work from Porky down the left led to a free kick near the touch line about 30 yards from goal.
Green stepped up to send a low fizzing ball into the back post that nobody could get a touch on, so flew into the back of the net.
We continued to stay on top, but a bit of confusion at the back from one of the many long punts from the back allowed the ball to drop to their number 9 who (I believe) just threw his toe at the ball and luckily flew past the unused Jack.
Undeserved but annoyingly typical of us at times over the last few years.
They had a bit of possession after the goal, but was quickly snuffed out with 2 quick goals.
Porky found himself clean through on goal with Green square or the keeper to beat, he chose to lob the keeper who got a hand on the ball, but the ball was rolling to the net.
With a covering defender closing in, Green made sure of the goal by tapping in.
Less than 5 mins later a great ball from a White corner allowed Hunt to rise like a salmon to power the ball home.

We had a number of chances to extend, a well saved volley and a free kick off the bar from Green probably the best of them.
Complete domination in the middle allowed for the amount of chances we had.
Green made all 3 changes at half time, and one instantly paid off.
From the KO a long throw from Howard was flicked on by Hunt, Green brought the ball down with his left foot then back heel volleyed the ball in with his right.
The oppo started to tire badly, and we made full use of the rolling subs by changing it every ten minutes.
There was still time for a quick time Porky double, both goals similar both excellent finishes low under the keeper.
And both goals included great build up play with Green, Howard and Amico interchanging passes on both occasions.

We got un-done with another long toe punt up field with Jack left in no mans land and to be fair a decent finish by their forward to make it 6-2, this concluded the scoring for the day.
We move on to the 3rd round of the AFA cup against Nottsborough (at home), with a good chance to dump one of the favourites out before the final stages.

MOTM - Matt Clark

The messy 3's first home game back on the clubs perfect pitches and we had the privilege of using the 1st team pitch.

After last weeks capitulation to Alexandra Park, we had a chance to erase any hangovers.
Green made a few changes which included bringing back Jack Robery after a few weeks of mistakes from Karson.

Starting line up was changed last minute due to Lee being stuck in traffic, this allowed the sheep to start his first game since falling down the stairs at taps!!
Green ordered a fast start, and the team duly delivered.

We had a nailed on penalty denied in the first attack of the game, where Porky shot past the keeper only to be pole axed whilst about to tap it in.

The fussy ref, somewhat bottled it, probably due to the amount of time gone in the game.
2 mins later another raking run from Luigi, saw him cross the ball low into the box towards Green. Their centre half clearly handled the ball, but once again it was ignored. Luckily Ibis felt sorry for us, and from the rebound off his hand we crossed again, and their fullback hit a great finish to beat his own keeper. Cheers fella!

We continued to press and could have had a hat full.

Then an attempted through ball to Porky from Green deflected to Aron, who took the ball calmly past the keeper (and unlike last week) squared to Porky for an easy tap in.

The midfield battle was clearly won by Ricky and Deano, with the oppo resorting to throwing elbows around.

Apart from a shocking booking given to Ricky for winning a great tackle the half was seen out without any danger.

Green changed it 2nd half, bringing on Chris and Lee.

HT 2 - 0

Ibis came out slightly better 2nd half, but we always seemed to have them at arms length. Then in true 3's style a gk error allowed them back in.

The revival was short lived!!

Pretty much from the KO, Green controlled the ball well and brought the ball forward from midfield, then picked out a defence splitting pass to put Aron clean through. Aron took a touch to compose himself then finished the move off sliding the ball past the keeper to make it 3-1 and kill the game.

We had a host of good positions after this but a combination of poor final balls and a lack of composure, also the post getting in the way of Deanos torpedo header see us score only one more... But it was a bit of a peach!

Amico again used his mushroom power to speed down the wing, Green made a run across the back 4 which he ignored to pick out an unmarked Porky who side footed the ball into the top corner.

3 points, on to the AFA Cup next week at Home to Reigations AFC.

Before then we celebrated Deanos birthday in style by staying at Norsemen then going to Taps.
Deanos use of Vaseline is also worth a mention. Dab and rub....

Before a historic fixture played out at Buckingham Palace Monday between two other SAL teams, the mighty 3rd XI were heading to Wembley...or not. After plenty of to'ing and fro'ing between the two clubs midweek, the venue was finally agreed for this mammoth fixture. A place with a long Norsemen history and even longer grass. Church Street got the nod.

Norsemen entered the game full of confidence after notching four wins out of four, particularly after last weeks impressive victory over division one's West Wickham. Having said that, AP themselves had an unbeaten record to protect so a tough game was in store.

We welcomed back Amico, Williams, Pett and Lyte into the fold who made up the strong bench, and lined up as follows:

Karson
Halpin
Nick
Keye
Beveridge
Reddington
Hunt
Bartup
Clark
White
Green

20 minutes or so passed with Norsemen arguably shading it, the best chance falling to White who put the ball wide from a difficult angle with the goal gaping. White's chance aside, an uneventful half picked up after a late challenge by Halpin 50 yards from goal led to an AP free kick. The ball was floated into the box causing little danger, Karsen called it but unfortunately got it wrong and the ball continued into the back of the net. 

Norsemen responded well enough to the setback and pulled level shortly after. A great run down the right handside from Reddington caused all sorts of problems for the oppo and was brought down in the box. Penalty. Danny Green stepped up confidently and despatched said penalty and it was game on. 1-1.
This didn't last too long however as AP re-took the lead after a scrappy encounter in the box lead to an Ally Park player losing his marker and slotting home at the far post. 2-1 AP Half Time.

Second half started and Norsemen didn't turn up. Consistently overrun with their number 10 causing a lot of problems, as did the right midfielder brought on at half time. Williams visibly still angry with his derisory accumulator failings, resorted to having verbal warfare with the ref without getting a single minute of game time. Amico come on and got clattered instantly, standard, with Lyte and Pett both entering the fray and performing well. Despite the changes we were still struggling to create too many chances, we knew if we got chances we needed to take them. With clear cut opportunities at a premium it would take something special to score, and with 15 minutes or so left Lee latched onto a pass from 25 yards and curled in a sublime equaliser of the highest echelon to send Norsemen into a massively premature celebration. It was probably undeserved but after getting back into the game, the message was clear. Keep it tight, nothing silly, and we can go on and win it. Barely a minute later Clark had the ball at halfway, passed to Lee, who passed it to someone else and so on. Problem was we were passing backwards and not very well, this resulted with Karsen passing to Pett into a dangerous area. Pett cleared only as far as the pressuring oppo. Any one of three could have scored and they duly accepted the gift.

A cracking through ball from Hunt late on left Green with a one on one to add a twist to this monumental encounter but the keeper did well and kept out the captain.

FT 2-3

A deserved defeat but after getting back into it only to be the masters of our own downfall made it hard to take. A league game at home next week is a must win if we have serious title aspirations.

Seeing as this was technically an away fixture, I am obliged to rate the showers, food and general hospitality.

Showers:
Poor. Pleasant enough to look at but as cold as a calippo. Resident expert Amico was particularly disgruntled in the bar after.

Food:
We didn't get any but Wilkesy absolutely demolished a sausage baguette so if it's good enough for him, it's good enough for anyone. 10/10!
MOTM:
Reddington

WALK TALL YOU BLUE LORDS!