Oaks Athletic 1 - 1 Belhus Park Athletic (League game 8)

The long held theory that Sharpy doesn’t listen to Milesy was blown out of the water prior to this game, when evidence emerged to suggest that he hears OK, but just doesn’t understand. How else could you explain how Sharpy ended up at Belhus Park even after being told on the morning of the game that we were playing Belhus AT HOME.

Fortunately Sharyp did make it to the match, and afterwards suggested this performance could be summed up in two words; the first being “Dog”. Although it was tempting to let Sharpy write the report this week, I feel I should probably expand a bit.

If we had been offered a 1-1 draw before the match, we wouldn’t have taken it as this is a game we should have won easily. However, the suggested summary gives a pretty good account of our performance, and in hindsight a point was a bonus. We do have some excuses; we already knew Rob would be missing for this game, and the plan was for Deano to partner Milly in the centre of defence. However, Milly’s wife gave birth during the week and complications meant that Milly had somewhere much more important to be. Congratulations from us all, and we hope everything is OK with mother and baby. With Sharpy the only available striker, this meant a real re-shuffle for Milesy, and we started with the following line-up:

ppppppppppppppppTy

pJimmy Deano Stu (c) Eye-ball

pNathan Jordan Gollum Aaron

pppppppppppSharpy Scott

Sub: Parker

The game began as it was destined to go on; as a really scrappy affair. The Oaks in particular lacked composure on the ball and struggled to string more than a couple of passes together. Matters were made worse when Stu sustained an injury within the first five minutes. He tried to soldier on, but was really struggling and was unable to do anything about Belhus’ opening goal, which saw the entire back four accountable for failing to deal with a seemingly harmless move, that started with a short throw in and ended with the ball being poked home past Ty: 0-1.

Stu had to go off soon after, which meant Eye-Ball joining Deano in the centre to form a partnership that has had mixed success in the past. Parker (our only sub) had to put down his flag and make the short trip to the left back position. We weren’t the only ones with injury problems (which also included the permanently semi-crippled Gollum), with Belhus losing two players to injury in the first quarter who had to be replaced by a couple of old guys who were definitely not expecting a game.

Although the game continued in pretty much the same vain as it had started, we did improve towards the end of the half but still went in to half time a goal down.

Given the disruptions in defence it is possibly a surprise to hear that the Oaks Raggy Doll back four functioned remarkably well as a unit in the second half. Playing a high line, Belhus were caught off-side on numerous occasions, and the one instance when the referee decided to ignore the offside flag came to nothing thanks to a fine save from Ty and good chasing back from Jimmy.

With neither midfield functioning very well, and the defences winning most of the battles in the last third, this wasn’t really one for the neutral. However, we were treated to one moment of quality as Nathan leapt majestically to head home Scott’s pin-point corner, and restore a bit of the Oaks pride: 1-1.

The only other incident worth a mention is what was quite possibly the worst insult ever heard on a football pitch. Feeling aggrieved at foul being award against him, the Belhus defender promptly turned to Nathan and branded him a “leper”. Now he might have a bit of a dodgy hip, but I don’t think any limbs are going to fall off any time soon (I hope!).

Lets hope next week is an improvement, and maybe if we try and get the nets up a bit earlier we can have a few more touches of the ball before we kick off – which definitely couldn’t have made matters any worse!

Eye-Ball

Next match: Sunday 31st Jan v Young Knight @ Home

Oaks Athletic 1 - 2 AFC Blackshots (league game 7)

This hard fought encounter may have ended in defeat for the Oaks, but overall we can be satisfied with what the manager considered to be a very good performance. To be up against the league leaders was probably the last game we wanted after a month without playing (which would have included the traditional Christmas over-indulgence for most), but at least the recent Artic conditions had meant a lengthy lay-off for all teams. So although there was noticeably less room in the changing room due to expanded waistlines, we were still confident that we were capable of giving Blackshots a good contest.

The sunshine encouraged a good turn-out, with Milesy picking the following line-up from a squad of 14:

pppppppppppppppppppTyrone (GK)

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

pNathan (RM) Jimmy (CM) Stu (CM) (c) Jordan (CM) Scott (LM)

ppppppppppppppppp Sharpy (CF)

Subs: Parker, Aaron, Gollum

Blackshots had inflicted the Oak’s heaviest defeat of the season in a previous cup game, and Milesy had obviously been studying the video footage intently as he chose to pack the midfield in an attempt to disrupt the fluid passing moves that had caused us so much trouble before.

The plan seemed to be working well as, although the Oaks were obviously rusty, we allowed the opposition very little time on the ball, and restricted them to speculative balls over the top which the Oaks defence were more than capable of dealing with.

It was therefore disappointing to go a goal down through being slow to get out of the area after seemingly clearing the danger from a cross. However, the ball was played back in and the blackshots players were played on and literally queuing up to put the ball past a stranded Ty: 0-1.

The Oaks created some good chances after going behind with the best falling to our very own Alan Shearer (Newcastle fan, good in the air, rubbish goal celebration etc.). When Sharpy leapt to head Rob’s pin point cross goal-wards the inside of the post cruelly came to Blackshots’ rescue. Sharpy wasn’t finished there, and was first to the ball again only to see his well struck shot blocked on the line. The Oaks had to therefore settle with going into half time with a one goal deficit, when they really deserved to be level.

The Oaks struggled to find the energy required to really threaten Blackshots’ lead in the second half and if it hadn’t been for a superb one-on-one save from Ty we would have been 2-0 down early in the half.

There hasn’t been much opportunity to introduce the Oaks newest recruit, but Scott has made a real difference to the side since joining before Christmas. Scott is a proper left winger, with a few good tricks and a super left foot. He was involved in the best Oaks move of the game, when he linked up with Sharpy on the left, who then crossed agonisingly close, but just out of reach, of Nathan.

Unfortunately when the next goal did come it was at the wrong end for the Oaks. An in-swinging corner hit the crossbar and fell fortuitously right onto the foot of the Blackshots skipper, who had the easy job of lifting the ball into the roof of the net: 0-2.

Blackshots seemed to take their foot of the gas following the second goal, and when Stu found the bottom corner with a well struck free kick from the left hand side we were in for an interesting last 10 minutes: 1-2.

The game had been competitive, but had been generally played in a good spirit. The one unpleasant moment came when a nasty collision between Ty and the Blackshots forward left Ty with a cut below his knee. He obviously felt that he had been the victim of an atrocious tackle, but whether or not there was any intent is not for me to decide. We should just be thankful that nobody was seriously injured.

Although the Oaks were in the ascendancy for the last 10 minutes they were not able to find the equaliser, and the game finished 1-2 to Blackshots. Although the result wasn’t what we wanted, the performance was very satisfying, and a good indication of what we should achieve in the rest of the season.

Eye-Ball