Pre-season had been a short affair for The Oaks, with only two matches for Milesy to have a look at the squad at his disposal for the new season. He will be pleased that the squad from last year has remain more or less completely in tack, and that the few players that have been added will add real quality. The one disappointment is that Gollum’s continuing back problems show no sign of abating, and although we know he will be available if required, his involvement is likely to be limited this season.
With 14 players to choose from for this game Milesy went for the following starting eleven:
ppppppppppppppTyrone (GK)
ppDeano (RB) Milly (CB) Rob (CB) Eye-Ball (LB)
pNathan (RM) Jordan (CM) Stu (CM) (c) Aaron (LM)
pppppppppppJamie (CF) Sharpy (CF)
Subs: Jimmy, Bill, Parker
The line-up included two brothers making their league debut for The Oaks; Tyrone is a seasoned campaigner who has played in the Premier division of the Sunday league. Less is known of the younger Jordan, but impressive pre-seasoned displays rightly earned him a place in the starting eleven.
The Oaks had been guilty of being slow out of the blocks in the two pre-season friendlies, but perhaps were a bit too keen to get stuck into the opposition with too many silly fouls being conceded around our penalty area in the early exchanges. This really set the tone for the match, with the sound of the referee’s whistle being heard on far too many occasions. We spend a lot of time lamenting about referee’s, and the conclusion is always the same; the team who are prepared to accept the decisions and hold their tongue more often than not come out on top, with this match being no exception.
A less than perfect start got even worse for The Oaks, as two influential players left the field injured in quick succession within the first fifteen minutes. You know when Rob stays down following a collision that things are bad, and the blood spewing from just above his eye confirmed our worst fears. With Rob heading off to A&E a quick re-shuffle saw Stu moving to centre back, Aaron replacing him in central midfield, and Bill coming into left midfield. The only people happy to see Jamie limp off with a groin injury would have been the Young Knights defenders, who had been finding his obvious quality difficult to deal with. However, they probably hadn’t banked on The Oaks having yet another prolific goal scoring machine waiting in the wings.
Given these disruptions, it was something of a surprise when The Oaks took the lead. The source of the goal was all too familiar, as a long throw in from Nathan went through the hands of the opposing keeper. The goal stood because the keeper had fondled the ball on its way into the net. I’m sure Nathan will argue that he should be awarded the goal, but because a goal can not be scored directly from a throw in the keeper has to take the credit.
1-0 soon became 1-1 when a good passing move from the Young Knights saw them cut through the heart of the Oaks defence and finish smartly pass Tyrone.
The lead was regained mid way through the first half when Sharpy bagged his first goal of the season with a curling free kick from just outside the penalty area that left the keeper rooted to the spot. Sharpy’s 21 goals from last season will take some beating, but if he gets anywhere near that total it will surely be a good year.
Surely no player can claim to be more loyal to The Oaks cause than Michael Parker. In over ten years at the club he has probably played in more positions than most, including being the regular goalkeeper for a number of seasons. However, his request to no longer be the No. 1 has lead in recent years to prolonged periods spent either warming the bench or treading a well worn path up and down the touch line with flag in hand. How someone with such a prolific goal scoring record (two games starting upfront, and two goals) has been overlooked for a regular striker’s berth beggars belief. If you’ve never had the pleasure of seeing the man in action, just imagine the love child of Steve Claridge and Ade Akinbiyi, and you won’t be far off. We all know the lad can play, and natural ability combined with energy and enthusiasm meant Parker had quite an impact when he replaced the injured Jamie. His impressive work rate was rewarded when he arrived in the box to volley home a low cross with the outside of the boot – it was a quite superb finish, and gave The Oaks a two goal cushion which was to prove the catalyst for the self destruction of the opposition.
When half time eventually arrived the score was 3-1 to the Oaks, but everyone knew there was still a lot to do to secure victory.
The events of the second half reminded me of an episode of the Simpsons, where Lisa conducts an experiment to see if Bart is dumber than a hamster. Electrodes are attached to a cup cake, and the hamster soon associates touching the cup cake with a painful electric shock, and so stops trying to eat the cup cake. Bart on the other hand can’t see the link between the pain and his attempts to eat the cake, and so continues regardless. It would be unfair of me to compare the entire Young Knights side to Bart Simpson, but a few of their players definitely made Bart look like a young Albert Einstein.
Their failure to accept the referee’s decisions (regardless of whether they were correct) and the frustration they subsequently felt compelled to expel caused them to completely loose their discipline, and with it any hope of winning the match. Up to this point they had looked a threat going forward, and only a fine acrobatic save by Tyrone following a corner prevented them from closing the deficit. However, when they had a man sent off for what I can only assume to be foul and abusive behaviour towards the referee that was it, and they were soon 4-1 down.
Eye-ball was encouraged to sneak in unmarked at the back post for a corner, from which he was expertly picked out by Nathan. Credit must be given to Sharpy who acknowledged the call from Eye-ball and allowed him to head the ball back into the danger area where Deano was on hand to guide the ball into the net: 4-1.
No Oaks match would be complete without a paragraph dedicated to The Oaks keeper, and this time Tyrone gets his first taste of the spot light. Ty is different, in a lot of ways, to the keepers we have had in recent years, and it was clear that The Oaks defence took a while to acclimatise to the strange hollering emanating from somewhere near the goal behind them. Ty attempts to do all the things a good keeper should; he commands his penalty area, gives clear, decisive calls; marshals his defensive troops; and knows when to come for a ball and when to stay. He is clearly going to make a big difference to the side, and will hopefully enjoy himself in the process. Unfortunately, following this match, he does now have one thing in common with all the keepers I have played with at the Oaks: being caught off his line and lobbed by a speculative effort from 40 yards: 4-2. Oh well…..
The game should have been well a truly wrapped up with 15 minutes to go when a lapse back pass presented Sharpy with a guilt edge scoring chance, only for the keeper to fell him. The keeper was rightly sent off, and Sharpy once again added weight to the claim that the closer he is to the goal, the less likely he is score; first seeing his penalty saved from 12 yards, and then almost demolishing the chimney of the house behind the goal from 6 yards. Perhaps Stevie Akinbiyi should have been given the chance to make it four in three.
Hopefully nothing too exciting happened in the last five minutes; the score line definitely didn’t change, and we should all give ourselves a slap on the back for such a great team display, and for starting the season with a win.
Eye – Ball
Next Match – Sun 27th September v Castle Rangers (Essex Cup) @ Blackshots
Goal Scoring Chart
