I’ve been putting off reporting on the last two weeks, as I
really didn’t want to take the gloss off what has been a superb season, in
which we are guaranteed to achieve our best finish in Division One, and will be
testing ourselves against the best teams in the Thurrock Sunday League next
season.
The squad is really down to the bare bones now, and with 64/42
goals/assists missing from the first game, and 61/42 for the majority of the
second, it’s clear that injuries and unavailability have ripped the creative
heart out of the team. The fact that we
still only lost both games by a single goal (our biggest losing margin all
season has only been two) shows that we continue to be difficult to break down. Having said that all three goals conceded in
these two games were disappointing, as we were caught out twice at the back
post from set pieces (once in each game) and despite not being a goal keeper, 9
times out of 10 Liam would have caught the ball cleanly rather than giving the
opposition playing the opportunity to collect the rebound and score.
v West Thurrock
Subs: Sharpy
v United Ockendon
Subs: Sharpy, James
v United Ockendon
With a full squad available we know the last month would
have been very different, but if we were going to suffer injuries to key
players at least it has come close to the end of the season. Brian and Dale joined Ryan on the long term
injury list, with Brian being the victim of a bad tackle in an ill-tempered
game against Thurrock, in which Mo also had to go off following a late stamp to
the ankle. The game finished 9 on 9
(Thurrock had 2 sent off and we had already run out of players when H also had
to leave the field), and was a really rubbish way to finish the league season. Dale
had to be helped off early in the match against Ockendon when he suffered a
freakishly similar ligament injury to that sustained by his brother a few weeks
earlier. It really isn’t the same with
zero Kenyons in the team, and seeing as they injured opposite ankles I suggest
we tie their bad ones together to create The Kenyo-tron. I’ve checked the rule book, and there is
nothing that says this isn’t allowed.
All this shouldn’t detract from us congratulating Craig for
scoring his first goal as an Accie. He’s
had some good chances to find the net, and when it did finally happen nobody would
have expected it to come directly from a corner - especially when in theory the
ball should have been swinging out off his right boot. Perhaps this is what the keeper was expecting
as well, as Craig cut across the ball the caught him out as his near post.
The worst we can finish now is 3rd. Hopefully we will retain 2nd place, but will be relying on West Thurrock dropping at least 7 points in their last 6 matches.
MoTM awards went to Eye-Ball for the first game, and Mo for
the second (only narrowly beating Alex).
H’s ridiculous sending off for trying to eat an opponent earned him DoTD
for game one, and I don’t believe one was officially awarded for the second
match.
The Memorial Cup was never seen as being important, and it’s
extremely unlikely that we can win the group now and progress. Therefore the last three games should be seen
as a chance to relax and enjoy our football, whilst still playing with pride
and giving 100% for the shirt. Key players
are going to be missing for all these games, but hopefully others will see this
as a chance to shine.
Eye-Ball
Goal scoring chart
