Banter vs Central The Match Report

Sunday 2nd January 2011

Friendly, Trenham Drive

Banter 0 - 6 Central
  Tino, Adkins, Baird (2), Brownie

Banter: Tyler; Dancer, Bennett, Vidic, Goody; Cling, Hughes, Wilkes, Bryant; Hore, Euro

Central: Doc; Bushy, Tino, Boma, Mills; Ridders, Gillardino, Fintan, Baird; Adkins, Brownie

It’s often said that you never know which Banter might turn up: sometimes an organised side who can beat anyone, at other times a complete mess who gift Eagle Royale with points. This game, for the purposes of the example at least, proves it to be true. Granted, not everyone was a BCFC player and some stand-ins were naturally more reliable than others, whilst injury and illness had to be taken into account, but undoubtedly the blue half were a class above their teammates.

It was bright enough start from the white of Banter, Euro latched onto a mistake by Tino to go one on one with Doc in the Central goal, but his shot went well wide. The #10 was playing his first game for the club since February and partnering Hore up front from the start for the first time in 3 years, almost to the day. It was business as usual then with a bread and butter chance wasted, as well as being wiped clean out early on by Boma, following a good turn of pace from the slightly rounder than usual Malteser. It was a pretty horrendous challenge which the offender somehow tried to claim included the ball in his slide tackle. It didn’t.

Banter had a chance to open the scoring from a corner too, when Cling swung the ball to the near post and Vidic darted to meet it well, directing his header toward goal, only for it to be cleared off the line. But Banter were far slacker in their marking than they should have been, allowing runners from open play and set pieces to get ahead way too easily and it was from a set piece that the white of Central opened the scoring. A good delivery from Ridders was met by Tino to head perfectly into the top corner and give his side a one goal advantage.

Banter pressed, but struggled to keep hold of the ball and lacked shape in midfield, whilst the centre-forwards hoped for a ball over the top at every opportunity. A slick counter attack saw Adkins race through down the left, looking up from outside the area, he elegantly chipped the ball up and over Tyler as it landed into the bottom corner. His return from injury was welcomed with a fine goal. Which was a cruel way to show up another player returning from injury, for this was Tyler’s first match in goal since his injury in October. He handled well throughout and near the end of the first half made a quite outrageous save following a deflected shot, which when it began heading in the opposite direction meant Tyler had no right to get anywhere near it, but shuffling over and springing high, he did so to palm away a certain Lampard-esque goal.

Central took in a 0-2 lead at the break, where Euro and Fintan from either side had to leave for other commitments and so the second half began with both sides playing 10-a-side. Banter opted to play one up front and Hughes was tasked with such a role, which was not only a natural fit but also eased him of the midfield running whilst he was suffering from illness. Central adopted a 3-4-2 formation, which basically allowed them to pick off their opponents at will. Central added a third goal very quickly when Dancer needlessly hacked down Baird inside the area. Baird jumped up immediately to get his hands on the ball and though Tyler might not have been ready for it, Baird tucked away the kick confidently anyway, to make it 0-3.

Rather disappointingly, many from Banter gave up by this point, though Goody continued to display some good touches and most crucially more than any other player, a lot of energy too. Baird had a good chance to score his second, but he missed from a couple of yards out following a decent run and cross from Ridders. Brownie got on the scoresheet a couple of times, one following a clearance by Tyler which saw him lob his fellow Soprano from a full 40 yards with a first time drive in a goal reminiscent to the one he scored against Sanderstead during a friendly back in September. Another saw a tidy finish into the bottom corner, whilst Baird did grab a second goal after a mix-up at the back between Tyler and Vidic brought back awful memories of Selsdon’s fourth goal on the Purley Way earlier this season. A 0-6 scoreline might have been a little extreme in complimenting the blue half, but they were undoubtedly deserving winners.

Bryant was forced off with a neck injury and Baird removed himself following a tight groin, leaving 9 v 9 for the last part of the game. It brought Banter’s best chances to score, from a couple of long range efforts and one which Bushy cleared off the line. Wilkes went close when one on one with Tino, but the big Irishman swept up well to claim the ball. So a rather humbling 6 goal win went to Ben Doc’s side, leaving the team in all white rather red faced.

Despite the comfortable victory for Central, there was a penalty shoot-out to finish with, just for banter.

Central  Banter
Gillardino scored Dancer scored
Brownie scored Bennett missed
Adkins missed Cling scored
Bushy missed Hughes scored
Mills scored Vidic scored
Boma scored Goody missed
Doc scored Wilkes missed
Ridders scored Hore scored
Tino scored

Central won the shoot-out 7-5.

Man of the match: Edd Adkins. A perhaps surprisingly good performance, because whilst countless players blamed the Christmas period for a lack of sharpness, that only made Adkins’ first game since September all the more impressive. Given too much time and space to operate, for sure, but clinical and alert throughout nevertheless. A fantastically well taken goal too, which many couldn’t replicate. Ready when you are, big man.

Some extra special points:Many thanks to those that came along and stood in to give us the chance to play 11 v 11. Bushy, Adam, Bennett, Hore, Goody, Bryant. It is most appreciated, we hope you enjoyed it. Besides being quite a lot of fun, I think it was a really good exercise. In the literal sense that we needed exercise, but also it gave us a semi-competitive game, without the worry of serious injury or even the need for a referee! Don’t overlook that last point either; it still takes 22 level headed individuals to make it work. So thanks for that. Being it was 2nd January, I wonder how many other teams played a friendly or trained? Hopefully Carlton did not. Which if they didn’t, whilst it doesn’t hand us ridiculous advantages, it could still make a big difference. Naturally, some of us were rusty and took time to get going, which means its better to do that the week before a proper game than be finding your feet 20 minutes into an important game. That said, the work is not done. A lot of players need to get their fitness and sharpness back. My concerns over my own fitness sit at the very top of the list though, believe me. It’s all very well ducking out of the run before training or cutting corners during games and drills, but it’ll get you nowhere. Nowhere that’s any good, anyway. If you think any of the above could apply to you, it means it probably does!A converted penalty? A header from a corner? A clean sheet? Don't save it for a fuck-around, lets make these things count in competitive games from now on too!With what will hopefully be a long run of games every week, I think we should focus in on the chance to win a trophy now. We have players returning, we have a strong squad which is well balanced and we have a great team spirit. We are also a year more experienced together, following the good new year run we had last year (7 wins, 1 draw from the first 11 games in 2010). If we work hard at it, we could still win a cup and/or the league – given the games in hand we have, this is still completely within our own hands. But we might want to adopt Central’s attitude, rather than Banter’s. One day Banter Central might find the need to expand as a club and have two teams, rather than just the one like we do currently. Should that happen, this showing might even offer us an insight to the A and B squads. Happy new year everyone!