December 2009 Match Reports

Sunday 13th December 2009

Surrey Cup Round 3, Horley

Horley Crickets 9 - 2 Banter Central FC
  Ridders, Vidic

Team: Tyler; L.Dancer, Boma, Vidic, Cling; Ridders, Hughes, Adkins, Wilkes (Bushy, 46); Wommy, Brownie

It’ll go down as the biggest defeat the club has ever suffered and whilst Horley Crickets even admitted to the scoreline flattering them slightly, the word slightly is about as big as you could stretch. Banter began very poorly and ended it the same.

Horley were out warming up from 10 o’clock whilst Banter sloped out in dribs and drabs, eventually having 11 players by the time kick off arrived. The home side came steam rolling out and found an early goal when a cross from the right saw both Vidic and Cling beaten and finished in the centre on the volley by Horley’s towering central midfielder. They doubled the lead shortly after when a deep free-kick was headed down unmarked from their left for a Horley teammate to strike into the bottom right corner as the away side stood watching. The lead was made into three when Horley were awarded their millionth free kick as Dancer and Bom took it in turns to go diving in wrecklessly, this one I believe was the work of the former! It was pumped into the box and as everyone called for offside (one was, but not “interfering” with play), no whistle went and a volley came back across goal from the right to be tapped in on the line. It was an identical reaction to Central Ward’s second goal in the previous round and where organisation goes, standing with your arm in the area is about the worst tactic going. Unfortunately everyone did it.

Banter did get back into the game for a brief period, a quick free kick from Cling to Hughes saw him spin and find Wommy, who turned his marker and slipped Ridders through on the edge of the penalty area, where he was totally unmarked but onside, he controlled, looked up and looped in the most audacious chip over the goalkeeper and into the net, much to everyone’s surprise. This action was probably 4th on the list of correct things to do in that situation; behind taking the ball on and sliding it into the bottom corner, passing to a team-mate or start doing kick-ups and then balloon the ball into Boma’s face. What Mr Talented did worked though and it was wonderfully taken. After that goal, there was a glimmer of hope and had another gone in there might have been a chance of something happening for the away side. Banter held the ball well and passed their way through to find openings - Hughes hit a half volley onto the crossbar, Brownie had a shot cleared off the line in a penalty area scramble and a one-on-one saved, Wommy headed over the crossbar from a Wilkes cross and Vidic saw his header from a corner cleared by a defender on the line, too. A goal had made the away side believe, but sloppy play and more slack marking was to follow, and it was clear Horley wanted it desperately and went and got a 4th soon after. LD passed inside to Boma, who mis-controlled and was unfortunately robbed of possession and had to chase as his marker ran on and made it 4-1.

Goal five followed when a run down the right saw Cling get skinned inside initially, as the winger advanced as far through the team as he liked, passed to a teammate who shot and it deflected in. Number six followed and if I could remember what happened I would tell you. 6-1 was the score at half time.

The second half saw a switch in the system, Banter’s 3-5-2 formation returned, with Bushy coming on at the back to replace Wilkes, Legend Dancer moving into midfield. The first 10 minutes saw Banter have all of the ball and all of the chances without converting any. On another day some pride could’ve been restored having seen 2 or 3 fly in, but it wasn’t to be. We learnt that no advantage can be given if someone throws an elbow, no matter whether he misses or not, which would also beg the question – how is someone getting away without more than a talking to for a swing of an elbow?! We also learnt about foul-throws, of which the referee deemed there to be an unbelievable amount. Patrice Evra wouldn’t like him, I know that much.
Goal 7 followed as Banter pulled one back when a Ridders corner was swung in for Vidic to leap and head in well, which doubled the team’s tally on the day and his for the season. That made it 7-2.

Number eight came for Horley despite Tyler making a couple of fine saves in the Banter goal, it saw a lovely finish but how it was allowed was more than a gift, a corner was floated in to the front post, the Horley player controlled as Bushy stood off and with his back to goal he set himself up for the mid-air bicycle, acrobatically swinging to finish as it flew into the top corner.

The final goal was as good as any ‘Footballing lesson’ you’ve seen against Eagle Royale about how not to defend, there were about 5 chances to clear the danger, it found the back of the net when Bom tried his best to finish but could only hit the cross bar, the eventual shot that came back came off his thigh and lobbed Tyler into the left hand corner. It finished off a dreadful day’s work for Banter Central.

Man of the match: Tommy ‘Wommy’ Warburton. He battled extremely hard and seemed really sharp having had an injury worry quite recently. He could have scored and probably deserved one to go in as he was really the only one trying or having any kind of success.

Whilst Horley Crickets were good for their victory, this was an absolute gift on behalf of the away side. An also missed opportunity to go and face our old friends Golden Lion Reserves in the next round. Hopefully this was a freak one-off where everything went wrong all on the same day. It happens, perhaps Kurdish United think the same of themselves a couple of months ago and on that day it was us that took advantage.

But after such a promising start we’re all scratching our heads a bit, I think. It’d be nice to go into Christmas with a league victory and start that back up again. Where better to start than against a team we’ve never beaten?! The 3-2 League Cup match against them a few weeks ago was narrow, we were desperately unlucky not to get something from that. That type of fight and desire again, at home, and it could be our first victory against them. So let’s all be good boys about it and then hopefully Santa will give us all the nice presents we deserve.