Old Tiffinians IIIs 1 – 1 Polytechnic VIs

It’s always easiest to write a match report as soon after the game as possible, so that all of the key moments are fresh in your mind.

The other option is to go to a club social straight after the game and wake up with a hazy memory of the previous 24 hours; did I play football? Did we win? What on earth did I drink? Am I going to be sick?

You can get the final score off the FA website, sorted.  Who was in the team, though?  Let me check the fines book and refresh my memory.  Turns out, I did play on Saturday, good to know.

So the game.  I’m pretty sure that everyone showed up on, or very nearly on, time.  A Tiffs miracle.  12 brave men were able to have a nice little warm-up, a much short but still rambling team talk, and a quick last minute scramble for a ref for the 2s game.  WIth everything in place, Tiffs began the game confident of a result.

Polytechnic came out of the traps quickly and immediately put Tiffs under pressure, firing in a number of dangerous set pieces that were only repelled by some courageous headers and finger tip saves from Ellis in goal.  It was only a matter of time before the deadlock was broken and sure enough, heavily against the run of play Tiffs got the goal.  A long clearance, or should I say, expertly weighted through ball saw Mike race onto goal and place his header past the keeper.  A defender had read it well and just reached the ball in time to clear it off the post, only for it to fall straight back to Mike to head home. 1-0 Tiffs.

Polytechnic continued to push throughout the half, but struggled to make many chances beyond a succession of set pieces.

I’m pretty sure the second half was a more even affair.  Polytechnic started well again and were soon level.  A corner, maybe a freekick, was cleared more up than out and the 2nd ball was won by a Polytechnic player who looped his header into the far corner.  It felt for a while like Tiffs would spend the rest of the game hanging on, but Polytechnic weren’t able to capitalise on their domination.  Tiffs grew into the half and were able to forge a few chances of their own.  Never scoring from set pieces forces Tiffs to try and score the right way; the honourable way, so a series of pot shots were fired at the polytechnic goal but sadly with little impact.

That was pretty much it.  A tightly contested game where the draw was probably the fair result.

Then beers. Too many beers.

POTM: Reece Evans