Rec Rovers 5 - 6 Oaks Athletic

In theory winning a game of football is easy: just score one more goal than the other team. They score none, you score one; they score one, you score two; they score five you score 6. OK, so a simple equation can soon become complicated, and The Oaks didn’t exactly make it easy for themselves on this sunny Sunday morning at Belhus Park.

Like so many times this season Milesy had the luxury of 14 players from which to select his starting line up, and he opted for the following team:

ppppaaaaaaaaaaaaaNNeil (GK)

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

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

ppppaaaaaaaaaaaJamie (CF) Sharpy (CF)

subs: Parker, Gollum, Bill

It had been three weeks since The Oaks last played, and it definitely showed as they struggled to find first gear in the opening exchanges, and were soon behind thanks to a deflected shot from their dangerous number 6 (don’t worry Rob, definitely not an o.g.).

This woke the Oaks up a bit, and they were soon back on level terms when Sharpy found himself through on goal and supplied a neat finish from 8 yards. Next came the first of two own goals (or the only one depending on who you talk to), as The Oaks were beaten at their own game; a long throw into the six yard box was met by Al who cleared in the wrong direction and left Neil no chance. 2-1 to Rec Rovers (I hope you’re keeping up).

The Oaks have shown what an effective and direct passing side they can be, and once they remembered this the benefits were clear to see. No more so than when Captain Stu finished off a slick passing move with a delightful ball into Jamie who was never going to miss when through on goal with only the keeper to beat: 2-2.

Having twice come from behind, The Oaks now took the lead for the first time when Al whipped a low ball to the back post and Jamie was once again perfectly place to put the ball past the helpless Rec keeper: 3-2.

I should at this point mention that The Oaks could easily have gone in to half time three goals up rather than one if one of our number hadn’t put a header over from 1 yard and manage to smash the ball straight into the keeper’s face with the whole goal was at his mercy. I’m not going to mention any names, but you must admire the fact that this guy has scored 19 goals when he can’t put away the easy ones.

Rec Rovers must have had something stronger in their water at half-time, as they once again looked to put The Oaks under pressure from the off. The scores were soon back level as Rec scored one of the goals of the game with one player starting and finishing a move with a good header from a left-wing cross: 3-3.

Having had to mentally capture 6 goals up to this point, I must admit that the following period is a little hazy – I blame it on my lung bursting runs that starved my brain of oxygen (I really should learn to multi-task). I do know that The Oaks went 4-3 up and that Nathan scored the goal (sorry Nathan, you’ll have to remind me what happened).

At this point Gollum was bought on for the injured Stu, Parker came on for Neil and Bill replaced Aaron. Gollum’s orders were to sit in front of the defence and break up any attacks; but, to be honest, Neil could have parked his No. 11 bus in-front of the goal and we still would have conceded. This time we were punished for failing to clear the ball from a set piece. 4-4.

I’ll have to leave it to Milesy to decide whether Nathan should be credited with the next goal, but from where I was standing it looked like the defender leathered the ball into the bottom corner in attempting to cut out a cross: 5-4.

There were now only 2 minutes remaining, and the Oaks went 5 at the back in a desperate attempt to keep hold of a lead for only half the time it takes to boil an egg. Unfortunately one extra man in defence could do nothing about the dipping shot from 40 yards that left parker wishing the Mansfield stewards had thrown him out of the country and not just the ground 5:5!

I think that the majority of us had lost the will to live at this point, but fortunately Nathan and Jamie weren’t prepared to give up so easily. The last of many bursting runs from Nathan earned a corner, which he swung over quickly to the back post much to the annoyance of the advancing defenders who wanted to get in the box for one last attempt at being near the ball when it went it at the right end! Fortunately Nathan’s quick thinking paid off as he caught all but one fast asleep. That one was Jamie who snuck in at the back post to head the ball into the goal from an impossible angle. 6-5 to the Oaks! It was the perfect way to round off a brilliant hat-trick, and Jamie obviously enjoyed it has he went running off like the 10 year old school girl who’d just had her first kiss.

So to summarise: The Oaks scored one more goal than Rec Rovers and therefore won the game. THE END.

Eye-Ball

Next game: Sun 29th March –v- Belhus Park Athletic @ Home – 10:30 a.m. K.O.

Scoring Chart*:

*Note that the chart has not been updated with goals or appearances from the previous match (I need to get the details of who played from Milesy).