OTFC Is vs Old Wokingians – 14th March
Back to league action for the Tiffs as they faced the rail replacement bus journey to the lovely land of Woking! How would the brave purple men fare – would they carry their tremendous form with them or would all the excitement of a recent semi-final victory see them drop off the pace?
Pre match laughter and jokes quickly changed to an atmosphere of desperation and fear… had the Tiffs suffered a late drop out, had the match been cancelled, had Ralph forgot his perfume to give to Seb?! Even worse, Jordan’s infamous number 6 shirt was missing. Blame was shifted all around the dressing room, MaBP had a nervous smile on his face… he was sure he packed the shirt. Tension was palpable. Players, NAY, friends now felt distrust towards one another. As despair mutated into hopelessness… and Ben Carey leant forward, all was revealed – Ben had put it on by mistake.
Onto the match! Clearly Old Tiffs had not been inspired by Cheltenham as to begin with, they were not at the races. The dry, bobbly pitch was favouring the physicality and height of Wokingians as the Tiffs were pinned back throughout the first half. Despite resolute defending and goalkeeping in the opening 30 mins, the pressure soon told… and told again as Wokingians got two quick goals before the break. Kimber’s sharp and spontaneous thinking decided it was time to switch to a back four, a tactic change that was definitely not queried by Seb before the two goals had gone in… After some frantic position changes the half time whistle was blown, a lot to consider for the Tiffs.
Lacking passion, poor ball control, poor chemistry, but enough about JJ’s Friday night. Tiffs’ first half performance was simply not good enough and they had to improve.
The first fifteen minutes of the second half remained lethargic but out of nowhere the T’s spun into action. A lovely move from back to front involving interplay between the Burns-Peake brothers, JJ, and Jack resulted in Joe Sammarco whipping in a dangerous ball that was neatly put away by Ralph.
Just minutes later, after finally escaping Kimber’s celebratory embrace, Ralph put in a run down the line which Ben Carey did not ignore, his near perfect ball sent panic into the defence and a loopy back pass was caught by the keeper. The referee’s whistle blew, indirect free kick. JJ’s effort was smartly saved but he was first to react to poke the ball back into danger, from which Kimber pounced to smash home the equaliser. Like JJ’s ‘friend’, the Old Tiffinians weren’t satisfied. A sumptuous delivery from Michael BP turned a non-threatening free kick into a fantastic assist, as the cross was neatly poked in at the back post by Amr.
Commanding punches and sweeping from Seb continued to deplete the confidence of the opposition and the game ticked into the final five… Then a corner saw Ben Harrison heroically getting his chest in the way of a goalbound effort but a strange noise entered the air. The referees whistle had blown, and despite no appeals from the oppo, the referees hand was pointed at the penalty spot. Disbelief quickly turned to frustration, then to understanding as we remembered the referee was ‘good at what he does’. In fact he was so talented he had spotted a handball that not a single player had spotted… mainly because there wasn’t one. The penalty was calmly put away and the final whistle blew three minutes later. A strange feeling gripped the Tiffs as they trudged back to the changing rooms, as although they should’ve been happy with the comeback they couldn’t help but feel disappointed at the end result.
It was no coincidence that after putting on Jordan’s number 6 shirt pre-match, Ben Carey was named MOTM. A superb second half display at right back saw Ben as defensively solid whilst maintaining an attacking threat throughout. Full time 3-3 the unbeaten streak continues. See you next week at the fortress!