Linford Wanderers 0 - 3 Oaks Athletic

Two goals from Sharpy and one from Al wrapped up a satisfying win in a game where our superiority in defence and the clinical finishing of our front two was the telling difference between the two sides. The funny thing is that Sharpy suggested we shouldn’t even play this game given the fact that an official referee had not been assigned! As it was the guy from Linford Wanderers was fair, and did a much better job than the man in black last week.

For the first time this season Milesy had the same 15 players to choose from, and the team was largely unchanged apart from the re-introduction of Eye-Ball and a starting place for Bill who had impressed when coming on as a sub last week. Bill was sporting yet another pair of football boots in an attempt to prove that the reason he keeps falling over is down to inadequate studs (your not fooling anyone Bill!). The full starting line-up was as follows:

ppppaaaaaaaaaaaaaNNeil (GK)

pppDeano (RB) Rob (CB) Milly (CB) Eye-Ball (LB)

pNathan (RM) Gollum (CM) Stu (CM) (c) Bill (LM)

ppppaaaaaaaaaaaAl (CF) Sharpy (CF)

subs: Parker, Jimmy, Aaron

The game started following a respectably marked two minutes silence in memory of all those who have sacrificed their lives in times of war. Linford started the brighter of the two teams, but for all their possession they simply couldn’t find a way through with Rob and Milly not giving their front two an inch. In contrast Sharpy and Al were winning the majority of balls played up to them, and were getting good support from Nathan and Bill, who won the free-kick that led to the opening goal of the game.

Stu’s free-kicks are an equally dangerous weapon as Nathan’s long throws, and having already hit the post with one effort Stu whipped in a perfectly weighted free-kick from the left hand side which was met by Sharpy at the back post to head home from 6 yards. 1- 0 to The Oaks.

The rest of the first half continued in a similar vain to how it had started, with Linford having most of the ball, but not achieving much. You always want to get that second goal to settle the nerves, and Sharpy duly obliged when following good link up play with Nathan and Al he beat the keeper to the ball and finished from close range with a well controlled volley. We all know that Sharpy was developing a phobia of the six yard box, so hopefully today’s two goals will have put this hoodoo to bed.

We were delighted to go into half time with a two goal lead, and winning or losing the match would be down to us battling together as a team and getting in any tackles in the penalty area before Eye-Ball got anywhere near them. Linford did create chances, but these tended to be restricted to long range efforts which very rarely found the target.

The strength of the Oaks squad this season was demonstrated when Milesy made three changes in the second half; with Parker replacing Deano – who by this time had sobered up enough to realise he was still injured and as Milesy had left his hipflask at home he was unable to continue. Aaron replaced Bill, who had given it all for the cause, and Jimmy replaced Gollum whose back had given up on him. The fresh legs gave us an extra boost, and when Al found the net via the near post from a tight angle the victory was sealed. The main aim was now to get our first clean sheet of the season, which we subsequently did, and was just reward for an excellent defence display.

We played to our strengths in this game, and I don’t think there are many teams who have a full squad of players who are prepared to get stuck in and battle for each other. So provided we all turn up with our right heads on there should be many more victories to come.

We’ve got a couple of weeks off, but still check the blog as hopefully we’ll have some updates from our Australian delegation – have a great time lads and see you in four weeks.

Eye-Ball

Next game: Sun 30th Nov - TBC

Goal Scoring Chart:

Oaks Athletic 2 - 3 Rec Rovers

The Oaks came back from behind once in this game, but were unable to repeat the feat a second time in a game that was dominated by a poor referee and yet another penalty conceded by the Oaks (the third in three games).

I don’t like to talk about referees in these match report, but given the incidents in today’s game, and the affect I think it had on our performance, I believe it’s worth discussing.

I believe that refs shouldn’t be subject to the abuse you hear every Sunday – we all moan when there isn’t a ref, and I’m not the only one who felt getting cold and wet on a Sunday morning just to be public enemy number one wasn’t worth the money they pay. That said good referees get a lot less grief than the bad ones, but we need to accept that, at our level, we are going to get more bad refs than good ones, and (as we saw today) confronting the referee only has a detrimental affect on your own side.

I thought of an analogy of how a teacher deals with a poorly performing student. Little Jimmy (no relation to our Jimmy) gets an F in his maths test. Mr Jones can see that Jimmy tries hard – he turns up to every class and always gets his homework in on time – it’s just he’s not very good a maths. Mr Jones gives Jimmy some constructive feedback, but has to do this in a gentle manner so as not to dampen little Jimmy’s spirits. Jimmy sits the test again, and again he gets an F. Mr Jones is feeling frustrated at this point; it seems that he can’t say or do anything to make Jimmy better at maths. However, he can’t let his frustration be known to Jimmy, and he definitely can’t tell him what he really thinks of his lame attempt at long division – he’d risk losing his job if he did. What he can do is reflect his concerns about Little Jimmy’s performance in his end of year report, and give his parents the opportunity to deal with the problem.

I know it can be hard as emotions run high and injustice can be hard to swallow, but if we try and put ourselves in Mr Jones’ shoes (that was an unintentional pun by the way), and let Milesy deal with little Jimmy’s assessment I’ll guarantee that we’ll see the benefits – for one thing we’ll more than likely finish the game with eleven men unlike Rec Rovers.

Anyway, that’s the preaching out of the way; let’s talk about the football. Milesy was unable to start with the same eleven that had finished so strongly the week before; Kieron once again had work commitments and Eye-Ball was taking longer than expected to get back from Southampton. The team to start the game was as follows:

ppppaaaaaaaaaaaaaNeil (GK)

pppDeano (RB) Rob (CB) Milly (CB) Parker (LB)

pNathan (RM) Gollum (CM) Stu (CM) (c) Aaron (LM)

ppppaaaaaaaaaaaAl (CF) Sharpy (CF)

subs: Jimmy, Bill, Eye-Ball

The first two goals of the game were of higher quality than we are accustomed to in this league. The first went the way of Rec Rovers, as a deep cross was met at the back post with a smart header. This goal also brought about the early departure of Deano, whose injury problems seem to be going from bad to worse; hopefully four weeks in Oz will provide the rest his body needs (obviously excluding his liver).

The Oaks responded to going behind with an even better goal - Stu putting in an outswinging free kick which was met on the run by Rob who headed emphatically back across the keeper and into the net from about 15 yards.

This was Rob’s first goal of the season, and The Oaks took the lead through another player who got his name on the score sheet for the first time this year. Another free-kick from a similar position to the last was again whipped in by Stu. Rec Rovers failed to deal with another excellent delivery, and the ball feel to Aaron who showed good composure to slot home from 6 yards (we’re just grateful it fell on his left foot!).

The Oaks went into half-time leading 2-1, and Milesy rightly pointed out that the next 20 minutes would be vital; if we could get the third goal we’d be more or less home and dry. We had shown in the first half that we had more goals in us, and Sharpy was especially disappointed to miss a headed chance that is usually his bread and butter.

Unfortunately Milesy’s wise words didn’t quite have the affect he would have hoped, and we started the second half in lacklustre fashion; allowing Rec to get the upper hand and put our goal under sustained pressure. We were struggling to clear the ball, and when possession was lost as we tried to catch Rec on the counter-attack their right winger was left unmarked and was able to find the bottom corner to bring the scores level.

The Oaks were seemingly shell-shocked at this point, but although we didn’t look like scoring ourselves we were also dealing comfortably with the little attacking threat Rec possessed – with Neil once again making some fine saves. Eye-Ball then decided that seeing as we seem to play better when we are losing, why not gift the opposition a golden goal scoring opportunity. If it means you get to kick a man to the ground then all the better! Eye-Ball’s mistimed challenge in the area had the desired affect, and The Oaks were 3-2 down; leaving some wishing there had been more traffic on the M3 this morning.

The introduction of Bill and Jimmy did bring some much needed fresh impotence to the team, but unfortunately we weren’t able to find the equaliser and winner to give us the result that we felt we were more than capable off given the quality of the opposition and our recent performances.

I think we all agreed that this was a disappointing result, but we should be even more determined to make amends next week. This will be Gollum, Parker, Deano, Sharpy and Nathan’s last game before they head off to Oz – so let’s send them off in style.

Eye Ball




p.s. Good luck for Tuesday Sharpy.

Next Game: TBC.

Goal Scoring Chart: