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
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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! 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 |
3s Match ReportsSAL Junior Division 2 Archives
October 2019
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