OTFC IIIs 1 – 5 South Bank Cuaco VIs

 

In a pleasant change from previous weeks, Tiffs had 11 available players by Wednesday afternoon.  Optimistic that this would mean a strong squad and plentiful substitutes, Tiffs skipper was daydreaming of a big win and 3 points on the board.  However, things are rarely that easy and it was only after some begging and pleading that OTFC IIIs just barely got their subs. Just.

The frost from a few days before had been replaced by pouring rain and near gale force winds, which is not conducive to Tiffs’ style of free flowing football.  In a nice change of pace, it wasn’t a match day cry-off that let down the team, but rather the Ref; who was still stuck in Clapham at the scheduled kick off time.  Despite being left high and dry by the ref, Tiffs were determined for the game not to be a blow out and found a willing replacement wandering Grists who was happy to pick up the whistle.

The delay did mean a particularly intense warm up, so Tiffs went into the game fitter happier than most weeks and confident they were in with a chance. A quick team talk and squad announcement, where the square pegs (the players?) and round holes (the formation?) turned 2+2=5 and the game got going.

Sadly, it was their brave skipper who turned this nice dream into a nightmare.  After a decent start to the game, he was caught dawdling on the ball by South Bank. Just a few simple passes later, and with a dubious offside waved away, South Bank had the ball in the back of the net. Tiffs’ skipper was left wondering how to disappear completely but quickly gathered his thoughts, refused to sulk and got back on with giving the ball away and generally being useless.

The 2nd goal was completely forgettable, so I have forgotten it. Most likely it was a deflection or corner or some other nonsense, although I might be wrong.

Was their 3rd goal any better? No surprises that it came from another Tiffs error at the back and after a tough run of games recently, it would have been easy for everyone to give up the ghost and suffer another heavy defeat. But Tiffs are made of sterner stuff and rallied before half time to get themselves back in the game. A slightly soft penalty was exactly what they needed. In honour of the 1st test of the Ashes having just started (and finished, actually), Oli Lofthouse came steaming in off a 15 step run up and smashed the penalty home for 3-1.

 

The second half continued in much the same way as the first. Tiffs generally did a lot of things right, but just lacked a little bit of cutting edge to get the goal they needed to really get back into the game.  As legs tired and bones ached, the game became a little more stretched and South Bank were able to seal the win with two more goals. One was outrageously lucky with a last ditch sliding tackle from Viv, which only succeeded in a ricochet straight into the goal off a surprised striker.

How do you recover from a game where almost every shot from the opposition goes in? Well luckily it wasn’t caught on videotape, so you go out to a gig on Saturday night and try to forget all about it.  You then go and prove yourself a week later (or two, we don’t have a game next week) and get an even bigger 3 points.

Answer to the secret quiz: 20

Player of the Match: Ben Harrison