As Big Eric Once said, 
"When The Seagulls Follow The Trawler It Is Because They Expect Sardines To Be Thrown Into The Sea" 
Now I'm not sure about Seagulls and Sardines but what I do know is that when you follow the messy 3s it is because you expect GOALS GOALS GOALS! And that's exactly what you do get!
Cup Fever had hit Norsemen and Grocers Far was about to witness a hum dinger of a cup quarter final!
Mercurial Magic Midfield Man Lee was running late, so Welsh Wizard Ricky 'Boyo' Williams got the nod to start.

On a cold bright day the toss was vital as the sun was glaring and would cause the team who attacked the Church Street End to have temporary sun blindness. 

Even though Danny is a great tosser he lost the toss.....this was to prove pivotal (not sure why, but I just wanted to use the word pivotal)
The Norsemen 3s were attacking the Church Street end up the hill with the sun in their eyes in the first half and Porky was hobbling around like a one legged Pale Bale. To say we didn't start too well is a bit of an understatement. In fact I'd go so far as to say we were derisory. 
After the early exchanges saw Old Sals come out on top it wasn't long before they took the lead with a controversial opening goal. 

As the ball was played down the right flank the Old Sals forward was offside however,  the ball did not come to him at first, the Old Sals winger tore down the right and the Old Sals forward remained offside as the ball was squared to him on the edge of the area. 

The Norsemen defence called for offside but the ref waved play on as the Old Sals forward expertly slotted home.
0-1 

The first half saw Norsemen get a bit more of a grip of the half although Porky had to make way as his foot buckled with the injury he had been carrying.
Then came the equaliser from Norsemen. A great header by Dan Howard that finished a good move by Norsemen.
1-1 

Norsemen were now well back in the ascendancy and the boys were buoyed by such a turnaround in fortunes. Game On!!

Moments later an inocuous ball into the area with a clear call from JJ the Norsemen keeper caused Bevers to calmly slot the ball past his own keeper! ! A well taken o.g. which led to Old Sals taking the lead again! The Norsemen boys couldn't hide their disappointment but this wasn't a time to blame anyone it was a time to regroup and get back into the game!! 
1-2

It wasn't long before the next incident in this action packed bumper cup tie! 
Norsemen were awarded a penalty! ! A way back in was on a plate for them and the trusty penalty king Danny G was the man to slot the ball past the keeper. That's exactly what he did, slotting it past the keeper and past the post the Green machine had missed the penalty to get his boys back on level terms.
The half time whistle soon came and the lads regrouped with talk of how to regroup and how the next 45 minutes would make or break our season. This was 45 minutes to save the match. 
The Welsh Wizard had to depart the field and so entered Lee. 

The second half was a different story. Old Sals had to play up the hill in this half and Norsemen began to boss the possession. Old Sals were still super dangerous and played their ace often on the counter attack with lightning fast breaks.

But still Norsemen pressed and pressed. Luigi began to get more and more into the game as he popped up on the left and the right snd began to cause Old Sals some problems "Mamma Mia!!"
Lee was also bossing the middle with Mr Chips and this was the story of  the 2nd half BUT still no equaliser! !

Chances came and chances went.....
Great moves were hatched but nothing came of them.....
Old Sals had a great chance that just went past the far post after a bit of a Norsemen mix up.....
But still it remained 1-2

Then finally it came. ...
It was around the 80th minute when Danny G made up for the pen miss and popped up with an equaliser that was surely set to to take this tie and Pett's tired legs into extra time! (Or was it?)
2-2
89mins on the clock
Bevers gets the ball about 40yards out
Bevers pumps the ball high and mighty into the Old Sals box.
Lee gets a flick on.
There's confusion snd panic in the Old Sals box as they look more like Aunt Sally....
The rest is a blur but all I know is that Danny G puts the ball into the back of the Old Sals net to bury the spectre of Bevers own goal and to well and truly confine that penalty miss to the dustbin of time.....
3-2......

Queue the massive rugby ruck celebration accompanied by shouts of "CELEBRATE CELEBRATE! !!" and the shouts of "Get Off My Toes!!" 

The final whistle blows and Norsemen 3s have booked their place in the SAL SEMI FINAL! !
It's days like these that will be remembered forever and the reason we play SAL football. .
The 3s celebrated in time honoured fashion by singing Wet Wet Wet and the Men Behaving Badly theme tune followed by plenty of Tuborg in the Bar.....

Walk Tall You Blue Giants! 

Next Game: vs. Merton (H) League

After the cup heroics of the previous week it was back to the beauty of the SAL Junior Division 2 
A nice trip to Ewell was in store for the 3's and some of the team opted to take advantage of the trip by using the 3's Party Train. 

When I say some of the team I mean 4 of the team. And when I say 4 I actually mean 3! 
Brye "Unbryliable" Keye managed to miss the party train from Waterloo and ended up travelling alone in the style of the Norsemen German Legend that is Yusef "Useless" Khan.
Are the days of the Messy 3's Away days numbered? 

Or are they saving themselves for the "Mega Lord" to HSBC ….. ONLY TIME WILL TELL! 
Any way, back to the important stuff…..THE KIT! The kit was in lovely shape when it arrived on the Danny bus and as always it was a pleasure to pull on the famous blue strip for the mighty Norsemen.
Once suitably attired the boys took to the lovely pitches of Salesians. The pitches were in marvellous condition and the dowsing of rain seemed to make it even better to play as we zipped the ball about in the warm up.

The boys knew that a win was essential in order to really stake a claim for league contenders but knew that Old Salesians are always a great attacking team and generally there are goals goals goals in this fixture (apart from last seasons battling 1-1)

The ref was ready for kick off and so were the teams so away we went! 
The initial part of the match saw each team really vying for supremacy with Salesians edging it early on as individual errors from Norsemen started to mount up and Salesians were really turning the screw.
The first goal came from Norsemen though after around 20mins. 

A great team move ended up in a square ball into "Little Dan" who slotted home nicely from 12 yards out….. 1-0 to Norsemen.

After this goal the mistakes from Norsemen kept coming and with a couple of quickfire goals from Salesians Norse found themselves 2-1 down heading into half time.

The last 10 mins of the 1st half did improve and the boys really took heart from this into the team talk. Norse were really confident of being able to get the win even though the score was a 2-1 reverse.

1-2 HT

Suitably fired up the boys took to the pitch in the 2nd half and started like a steam train! (CHOO-CHOO!) 
Before long it was 2-2 with "Little Dan" getting his second goal after some good work by "Big Dan" 
Norsemen were well on top now and 3-2 wasn't far off as "Little Dan" rattled in his third goal after finishing a bouncing ball from out wide on a tight angle, great finish and 3-2 to the Norsemen!
Things were looking great as Porky was able to beat the Salesians full back at will as the ball inside the Full Back was being used on a regular.

Then the moment that changed the game happened, Porky beat his man for pace again and the full back took a lunge to win the ball back and in doing so brought Porky down in a heap. Immediately it was clear that Porky could not continue as it was left to Physio Pett to administer the Rest Ice Compression Elevation for our Pale Bale. A wonky chair, a crumbling rotten old bench and pile of cones was utilised to good effect in order to give Porky the comfort he needed.

Meanwhile on the pitch, Little Dan lined up a free kick from out wide and attempted to whip up a storm in the box by putting in a vicious delivery, so vicious in fact it went straight into the top corner! 4-2 to the Norse! 4 Goals to little Dan……GAME OVER….!!??

Well, you would have thought it was Game Over, but there was still more to this game……(remember what I said about goals goals goals earlier)

With Porky off the pitch the out ball was no longer really there and Norse seemed to lose shape and sat back too deep….as Salesians now committed waves of players forward on a regular basis.
The Salesians barrage had started and it didn't stop until the final whistle!! 

Soon Salesians got one back …. 4-3 to Norse ….. 

Then they bagged another 4-4 ……. 

Porky & Physio Pett watched this nightmare unfold in front of them from the sideline. At 4-2 the talk was of League Titles, Jugs Of Beer and Kung Fu Movies, now at 4-4 there was a stoney silence as Porky rested his throbbing ankle and Pett sat on his haunches as the horror played out before their eyes……at 4-4 we knew it was coming and it did….

5-4 to Old Salesians with only seconds remaining……cue the wild celebrations from the Salesians followed by the long trudge back to changing rooms by the Norsemen boys….
A truly dismal end to the match for Norsemen with only themselves to blame. 

FINAL SCORE: 
Salesians 5-4 Norsemen - Green (4) 

NEXT GAME: 
SAT 16 NOV 2013 13:30 
HOME : AFA CUP - Norsemen 3rd v Nottsborough 3rd

Pitch Rating: 8 * *NEW* * 
A new feature for the Away match reports will be the Pitch Rating. The pitch we played on was great. A Good sized pitch with plenty of width for the wide man and a great surface cut to just the right length for zipping the ball about. Suited both teams.

Showers: 7 
Nice warm showers, that did help ease the pain of a 5-4 last minute reverse. (still no heated towel rail or Hot Tub) 

Food: 5 (Pett 7) 
Sausages in rolls, chips, sausage rolls and mini pasties. The team was divided on this rating (when I say divided I mean that Pett liked the rolls with sausages but the rest of team hated them)
Comments made were "There's no meat in those sausages" "They're rock hard" "We Only want the chips" However, Pett applied Tomato Sauce liberally and was able to make a nice hearty post match meal out of the rolls.

Beer Jug: 7 
The beer jug was a Fosters 6 pinter. Porky, Bevers and Pett sampled the delights of the beer and there were no complaints. Although big enough it was no West Wickham monster jug (5000ml)!
At the £16 mark it was decent value and eased the pain of defeat considerably as we supped and watched some unknown mug on BBC Final Score deliver the news of a last minute Chelski Penalty