February 2011 Match Reports

Sunday 27th February 2011

Purley Way

Banter Central FC 3 - 4 Woodmansterne Hyde
Tino (3)

Banter: Tyler; Vidic, Doc, Dancer (Tino, 60); Ridders (Wilkes, 65), Fintan, Gillardino, Hughes, Cling (Brownie, 65); Wommy, Euro

Woodmansterne deservedly took away three points and leapfrogged their opponents into fourth in the league table.

Banter’s commitment to the cause looked questionable at best and at times, far too laboured to expect anything but defeat. Beginning strong, after a few early efforts it took Banter an age to get back into any kind of rhythm, by which point the score was 3-0 and then 4-1.

With terrific build up play, Euro had a good chance to bury the ball from a Wommy cross but blazed his shot over and Hughes went next closest with a good header following some wing play by Euro. Gill had a shot blocked following a surging run into the area, whilst Ridders and Cling saw efforts from distance comfortably collected.

Woodmansterne were on the back foot for the first 15 minutes and Banter could have had four or five goals, but didn’t and perhaps believing in themselves a little too much to get on the scoreseheet, took their foot off the gas and allowed the away side the run of the play for the best part of an hour.

Some poor communication and slack marking allowed Woodmansterne to counter attack following a Banter corner, which saw Tyler facing up to a one on one, with the forward losing control of the ball and sending it out for a goal kick. The visitors had another good chance following a free header from a corner and another when the skipper climbed all over Doc to head only at Tyler - which it was fortunate that he did because the referee saw no wrong doing.

Woodmansterne’s pressure got them a deserved lead when a ball over the backline was well controlled and finished past Tyler by the ever dangerous centre-forward. A well taken goal, but the warning signs were all there following at least three incidents of an offside trap gone wrong and Banter slow to shut down in midfield. Woodmansterne lead 0-1 at the break – which could’ve been more following a couple of challenges in the box which the referee could’ve been forgiven for awarding. Or, as others have described them: "stonewall pens."

Despite knowing what the game meant, Banter took an age to get going in the second half. Inviting pressure and barely threatening at the other end, Woodmanstene got themselves a second when the away side’s forward looked like he controlled the ball with his arm before providing for a team mate to finish.

There was still a full half an hour to go when Woodmansterne added a third, following a corner which shouldn’t have been, a scramble in the box saw the ball take a deflection before creeping in to what looked set to kill the match off.

Tino replaced Dancer and shortly afterwards Brownie and Wilkes came on for Ridders and Cling. Fresh legs, more energy, a change in personnel and Banter did begin to play once they pulled a goal back. A well delivered corner from Wilkes was charged at and met by Tino with his head and with almost 20 minutes remaining, time still to put on a fight back.

But some sloppy play at the back when the ball could’ve been cleared any number of times saw Doc eventually hold on the longest, he was tackled and Woodmansterne’s striker punished by slotting away neatly. At 1-4, Banter were set for a record equalling worst defeat of the season if the scores stayed the same.

But creating the better of the chances in the final 15 minutes, the 'home' side worked the ball excellently in midfield which saw Euro set free into the box, he beat his man and was brought down for a penalty. Tino stepped up and confidently tucked the ball away.

Hughes was put through on goal shortly after and despite having to beat his marker for pace to get in behind, the linesman rather predictably and referee more controversially, gave an offside decision. Euro, rightly, went mad.

Substitute Tino completed an unlikely hat trick when handball in the area saw the award of another penalty, making the scores 3-4 before the final whistle was blown a couple of minutes later.

Man of the match: Andy ‘Tino’ Sheridan. Two spot kicks it might have included, but impressive to get a hat trick nevertheless – particularly as a 30 minute substitute – and as we’ve seen with many taken this season, hardly a forgone conclusion from 12 yards. Some cynics might say this was his second hat trick in as many games, but fortunately there aren't any of those here.

I always take some pleasure from closing the gap in scoreline, even when we lose. A 4-1 loss would feel worse. Two penalties or not, it accounts for pressure in the penalty area applied and getting your rewards. A good effort at the end which is better than nothing, but we know it was too late.

Where perceived positive vs. negativity goes, we certainly are a team that should encourage one another as much as possible. Although we often don’t do that enough (same voices all the time, etc), we should. Positively giving feedback should come from a well thought pass, a shot on goal, a clearance or even for a mis-hit effort that had good intentions. But negativity from giving the ball away, not hitting the target or mistiming of a header? No. But there’s a difference between that and deliberate lack of effort. Everyone is capable of effort and everyone’s should be 100%, so to pinpoint moments of negativity, we need to identify the difference and I don’t recall many occasions of big bully shouting when someone had a cross blocked or a shot saved. I did hear it when we allowed free headers on goal or not shutting the play down quickly enough. Rightly so as well, it was inexcusable and we’ve not been as sloppy like that all season until this point. From a 2010/11 point of view, it came from nowhere. Without that moment of realisation from one or two vocal members, we’d only be faced with silence at times of lethargy – deafening as it might be. I believe we’re allowed to get on each other’s backs when we’re not trying hard enough as much as we suck each other's dicks for doing well, or I write hundreds of words on these pages about how good we've all been. The glass cannot always be half full when no-one bothered to pay the water bill.
 
The butterfly effect: had we put away our chances early doors, we’d have won the game. Unfortunately, because we created those chances so easily (and by that I mean easy looking from pretty basic hard work), I fear we sat off and thought we were in for an easy ride. But we did load the box well in the first half and for the football played in the opening 20 minutes, we deserved a goal. We should've continued to press and carried on working at it.

Barracuda lost to Surrey Valley. That means if we’d beaten Woodmansterne, the league title was ours to lose with four games remaining. Not four easy games, but nevertheless, four wins would have seen it off without the need for outside interference. Salley did us the favour we so badly had been asking for in Barracuda’s remaining games, but we did not return the favour for ourselves. This means barring some very unlikely and fortunate results, promotion is unlikely and Selsdon could now sweep all before them, take the title and leave us in fourth again.

That little 'ouch' said, we must obviously go to the end, learn from this mistake and hope for more results like Salley offered up last Sunday. Stranger things have happened at this stage of the season – see Sovereign not knowing how many goals they needed in 2008 or Maple Tree’s unlikely collapse last year. We should also look to get amongst the goals and gain some momentum going into our most likely shot at silverware: the Leonard Vase. There's quite a few games to go and I still feel we deserve some rewards from the season. Just not on Sunday's showing.

What odds would Tino have got on doing that? Euro?