March 2009 Match Reports

Sunday 8th March 2009

Edward Alleyn Sports Ground, Dulwich

Real Madras 3 - 3 Banter Central FC
  Hughes, Tino (pen), Euro

Team: Wuker; L.Dancer, Tino, Bushy (Boma, 70 mins), Cling, Rodber, Hughes, Adkins, Pasty (Gillardino, 46 mins); Euro, J.Stewart (Wommy, 65 mins)

A good, hard fought for point and a very good way to end the league campaign. Though Madras have a comfortable lead over Banter in the table and had beaten the blues back in September, this sort of result should hardly be surprising due to the personnel involved and the capabilities of everyone available.

Banter began the game quickly, flying out of the traps and spending long periods in the Madras half. End product was slightly lacking and no-one seemed brave enough to test the goalkeeper in the early goings. With a big pitch to play on, Banter swept the ball around comfortably and confidently, Hughes in particular was enjoying the space and freedom he was also being allowed in the centre of the park. That Banter didn’t have a corner in the entire first half suggests things were lacking in the final 3rd, but by and large it was against the run of play when Madras’ centre-forward was put through and tucked his shot away neatly to make it 1-0 to the home side. Banter bounced back well enough and Rod, Hughes and Adkins were winning their midfield battles superbly well in the air and on the deck. Madras began to cause problems in and around Banter’s penalty area though and the longer the half went on the more it seemed they’d score from a dangerous set-piece that most will remember from the reverse fixture. Legend Dancer was guilty of a couple of careless lunges, my favourite one he contested by explaining: “I stuck out my leg and he went over it”, which I’m unsure if that was his way of saying it was or wasn’t a foul, though the explanation seems pretty clear. Wuker came to the edge of his area to claim some through-balls on more than one occasion and did well, one incident where he was pulled up for a tackle outside the area seemed fair game, winning the ball cleanly, though the referee didn’t seem to agree and another free-kick was awarded. We’ve seen desperate and poor challenges in this area from Banter’s #1 before, this to me didn’t appear to be one of those. The big man collected comfortably and on Banter went. It was Wuker’s long kick which sparked Banter into life for the equalising goal, a long punt downfield saw Jon Stewart go up and challenge, the ball break for Euro who danced past his marker down the right hand side as if he weren’t even there, his cross into the penalty area was superb for Hughes to lash home to make the scores 1-1. It was quick, incisive and a very well worked goal. That gave Banter a healthy amount of confidence to take into the break, something the blues felt they more than deserved.

Gillardino came on to replace Pasty for the second half, whilst Banter began very slowly and saw one chance easily come through at Wuker’s goal and another cross go begging as 11 blue shirts came out napping. The errors of last week hadn’t been learnt from and Madras’ early second half pressure could not be withheld forever as they deservedly edged in front when their midfielder latched on to drive in a screamer on the half volley which Wuker had no chance with. It was struck well and true, nestling into the far corner to give Banter a bit of a wake-up call, one would have thought. After being caught out on the break a little easily once or twice and Cling having little joy down the right hand side, Madras took advantage of some lapse defending when a cross came over to an unmarked red shirt, which was softly stuck back across Wuker’s goal. It seemed to take about 5 minutes to go in and the keeper’s reaction was one of disbelief as if it should have gone wide. This goal appeared to be the slap round the face that Banter finally needed and mistakes from this point on were few and far between. A long ball down field saw Jon Stewart react well and flick the ball beyond his opponent to latch onto, the ball was cut out and Banter won their first corner of the game. Cling’s near post delivery was swung at and missed by Tino, who probably would’ve said “fook” if you’d asked for one word to sum up the move. Wommy replaced the elder Stewart brother and Boma came in for Bushy shortly after in two straight swaps, Cling and Jonny switched sides around the same time and whilst no one alteration was the specific reason for such a good recovery, it appeared to be enough freshness for the game to change in Banter’s favour. Wommy was put through wonderfully when Hughes bent a pass with the outside of his boot down the line; Mr Gunn sent a cross into the box which was eventually cleared. Banter kept the pressure up and it eventually paid dividends. Adkins’ long ball to Cling saw him latch on down the left to beat his marker and knock the ball into the area first time for Wommy, who spun, was clipped from behind and managed to get a shot off, but was pulled back for a penalty to be awarded. Euro cleared it up, “That was a shocking decision, just in case you were wondering”. Though nobody was wondering and it was indeed soft, Banter’s leading scorer was tripped in the build as a matter of fact. Tino lined up his penalty and it appeared only those in red were nervous, given the hounding and cheap comments the centre-half received as he spotted the ball and readied himself. A confident kick as usual, his penalty blasted into the bottom corner much to disappointment of many muggy little faces who expected a different outcome. “He doesn’t want this” seems a bizarre comment to a player who jogged the length of the pitch to come and take the thing without so much as a word being exchanged about who in blue would step up. Still, if last laughs were to be had, Euro would be having it. Rod cleared his lines well in midfield as the ball seemed to reach a Madras defender, Euro nipped in and beat his marker and with an onrushing goalkeeper the boy only usually thinks of two things: run around him or lob him. He chose the latter and finished tremendously well, the ball dropping perfectly into the net to the point of confusion and a 5 second delay as Jon Stewart said “I think that went in”, much to the away supporter’s delight. A cool finish and his watching lover would’ve been ever so pleased (oi, who’s yer mate, by the way?). A few frustrating moments after, in particular when Cling was put through twice - on one occasion in line with the defence and a second about 5 yards back, he was somehow adjudged to have been offside. If the captain’s name is to ever be used in vein, it’s fair to say that Banter were clinging on at the end, Madras unlucky not to convert a few of the half chances they had, one which shaved the outside of the post, a free-kick late on which Hughes would comment about his true disappointment about the possibility of it going in. Wuker tipped it over and Banter cleared the corner away well, as they had done all game, particularly against a side who scored from 3 set-pieces in the reverse fixture back in September. The game finished up 3-3 in an entertaining and well fought battle.

The ratings…

Wuker – 7 – Decent handling for the most part and unflawed kicking as we’ve come to expect. Distribution out of his hands was often laboured and careless, whilst he’ll probably be disappointed by how softly Madras’ 3rd flew in. Ultimately, a decent return to the side in the last 2 weeks, just a few creases to iron out.

L.Dancer – 7 – Worked hard and got his body behind a lot of through-balls and shots on goal, though a little bit too much excitement when diving in around the edge of his own penalty area.

Tino – 9 – Man of the match. A dominant display, particularly marking a tricky customer up front, which he dealt with very well. Aside from winning his aerial battles and distributing well, you can rely on him to convert from 12 yards when the pressure is on. At 3-1 down, the pressure was on. An unstoppable kick.

Bushy – 6 – In terms of defending, he was reasonably untroubled in one on one moments during the entire game and did his job reasonably well, but his mind must have been on Limp Bizkit, Metallica or Savage Garden when the cross came over for Madras’ 3rd goal.

Cling – 6 – Though the ball never found its way wide from a Banter shirt all that often, when it did come wide right the end product was largely lacking and I can’t remember a single delivery of note into the box, barring the build-up to the penalty. Did win a lot of headers though, easily more than a dozen and probably about 9 (ask Wommy’s G about her maths on that one).

Rod – 8 – He’ll want to forget a few of his early passes, a few uncharacteristically bad ones since he’s usually very accurate, but there were few mistakes here in an otherwise excellent performance. In particular, his positional sense was absolutely spot on. He sat in the holding role, protecting the defence superbly and even found himself covering at right-back in the second half. He put the hard work in and everything in front of him developed accordingly in the second half.

Hughes – 9 – Outstanding. He has energy to burn, fantastic acceleration and a turn of pace and was fully deserving of his second goal in as many games, driving into the penalty for a moment where you have to buy the ticket in order to win the raffle – he took the gamble. His passes were simple and always found a blue shirt, his determination and tackling was again exactly what we needed.

Adkins – 8 – Is to a 3-man midfield what Village is to the Whyetleafe petrol garage. Comfortable and at home. It’s easy to forget that he might not yet by 100% after over a year out, but if he was and he had more sharpness he’d be even more of a handful. That said, his passing was accurate, his communication was clear and his shorts… well they weren’t the Sheffield Wednesday one’s from 1992 so he loses a point for that.

Pasty – 6 – He allowed one, perhaps two crosses into the area in the half he played and so by and large he dealt with that area very well. Made way for Jonny at half time.

Euro – 8 – Quieter first half than second, but end product was what he was all about. He might not have wanted to be there, instead cuddled up to his new mate (amazing that it was nearly 1 year ago to the day that he dragged another of his conquests along to watch – I’m really sorry if you’re reading this girl, he honestly isn’t a playa. In fact, he isn’t even a very good player), but he caused enough problems that Madras will remember him for next season – when being around full-time will remind us how much he’s been missed this term. Set the first up in typical fashion and took his goal superbly well, even if only he reacted for the first 5 seconds of it being in the net.

J.Stewart – 7 – A largely quiet game but worked hard the entire time he was on. A good couple of ways to describe J-dot would be that he’s a nuisance, or a handful. Defenders don’t like strikers who get in the way and put them under constant pressure, which is exactly what he did in the build up to Blow Off’s, I mean Banter’s first goal and he didn’t actually touch the ball in doing so.

Gillardino – 7 – Comfortable as he usually is and never under any pressure on the back foot, dealing with what came down either side he played on particularly well. He did this annoying disappearing act around this time last year though and the fact that he hasn’t trained once in 2009 is a cause for concern!

Wommy – 7 – As with Jonny and the Boom town rat, another handy player to have coming on to freshen things up. Got in on goal a couple of times and though it seemed soft, he was undoubtedly clipped before getting a shot off to win Banter a penalty. If fit, he’ll be integral to how far this side goes on the cup run. And Banter love a run cup.

Boma – 7 – Never looked in any danger or struggling for fitness, he put in a good stint and to his own mind changed the game. Ask yourself this: He and Wommy both came on at 3-1 down and the game ended up being a 3-3 draw, who – if its definitively got to be either out of the two – made the biggest difference to that? Yours and his answers may differ.

That was a really promising and positive way to end the league campaign in my opinion. Particularly against a side pushing for promotion – something no longer possible with that result (sorry guys). The ball was knocked around well, everyone remained confident and the fight-back was excellent. The only negative appears to be the alarming number who are unavailable next week. It was such a good thing to have a proper squad with us this week and it paid off, to have this 9 games out of 10 would make a difference over a season. Sunday is a must win cup game – the season being over should Banter not win – I plead with everyone to try and be available and for those who currently aren’t, if that can be amended it would be tremendously helpful! Well done lads, a huge pat on the back to all for this one.

Sunday 1st March 2009
League, Norbury Power League

Oakfield Manor A 1 - 3 Banter Central FC
  Hughes, Fintan, Wommy

Team: Wuker; L.Dancer, Tino, Bushy; Shannon (Village, 85 mins), Rod Fintan, Hughes, Adkins, Cling; J.Stewart, Wommy (Pasty, 70 mins)

When Wommy hit what he called a cross towards the Oakfield goal, a comfortable save was duly expected but not forthcoming. It was spilled into the bottom corner as Wommy clamed his 15th goal of the season. With the score 3-0 to Banter, it was effectively game over, despite 15-20 minutes of the first half remaining. Banter began in 1st gear and barely moved out of it all afternoon. With Cling's notoriously bad sense of direction got the better of him, he and Wommy had not 2 minutes to warm up before the game kicked off. Oakfield broke through the Banter backline on more than one occasion and fortunately Wuker was as alert as anyone - having not played since mid-January - cutting out a couple of through-balls and getting down well to claim some efforts from distance. There was a positive 'shoot on site' attitude emerging and even if one or two efforts were wayward, it was promising to see a few efforts on goal so early on from Banter. Rod had a good chance to give Blow Off the lead, he swung wildly at a cross but only managed to give the Oakfield centre-halves a cold such was the lack of foot to ball connection. Banter opened the scoring when Cling's corner was tucked all the way to the back post to evade the keeper and eventually go in after a last touch from Phil Hughes, though debate afterwards suggests it was far from clear. Banter slowed the game down and began to keep hold of the ball well, being patient in their play where possible. Adkins and Hughes roamed forward and across to the wings to collect and distribute passes, as Rod sat deep to protect the defence. A pass wide to Cling saw him cut in and float a ball over the Oakfield backline and into Wommy's path, he controlled and uncharacteristically fell over, only managing to scramble the ball past the oncoming goalkeeper, which Rod latched onto from a couple of yards out to tuck away. Wommy's freak goal followed and at 3-0 Banter were cruising and could have scored 6, 7, or 8. The half fizzled out and Banter came in at half time to be welcomed by some lovely oranges and Capri Sun by the FAGs.

The laid back half time attitude transferred itself onto the pitch for the blues and most were caught napping on more than a couple of occasions. The atmosphere seemed to go dead and for the first 10 minutes of the second half only one team seemed like scoring and that was the home side. When a break went down Oakfield's right, the ball made it's way to the centre and on the edge of the area with time to look up and shoot, the Oakfield attacker drove a good shot into the bottom corner, much to the frustration of Wuker and rightly so. Banter gradually improved and the game began to open up the longer it went on. Wommy was not having his usual influence, he soon volunteered himself off after a twinge in his problematic hamstring. Pasty came on and played down the left, Cling moved up top to join the elder Stewart. Hughes undoubtedly had the best couple of chances to extend the scoring, after chasing down the defence to nick the ball away he ran through and smashed his shot agonisingly wide. His other effort was a flicked one-two with Cling which allowed him to race in on goal only to rifle his shot onto the base of the post. Adkins had a couple of long range efforts which went close, he appeared to have a Ronny Rocket all lined up before the referee got in his way. Most would have loved for him to unleash anyway, instead he took on the ref and a couple of defenders all the while explaining to the man in charge how disappointed he was about it all. Shannon went tumbling to the deck holding his shoulder after a 50-50 challenge, it appeared to be a re-occurence of his injury from earlier in the season and so he signalled to be subbed off. Village got undressed much to Pasty's excitement, but had to put the tracksuit back on when Shannon decided he was ok. Not 5 minutes later he went up for a header, hit the deck again and decided his time was up. Hopefully the injury isn't as bad as the first time around. Cling's free-kick to the back post late on just evaded J-dot and Hughes as the whistle went, the game finishing 3-1 in Banter's favour.

The ratings...

Wuker - 9 - Man of the match. An excellent and confident return from the big man, making some good claims as well as getting down to stop some decent long range efforts.

L.Dancer - 7 - Went about his business with minimal fuss against minimal pressure.

Tino - 8 - A commanding presence throughout, his organisation as good as always.

Bushy - 7 - Dealt with the second half pressure reasonably well after an easy first, went on those searching runs to pull off the extravagant as is normal.

Shannon - 6 - Quiet and not greatly involved, unfortunate to aggravate his previous shoulder injury and made way for Village shortly before the end.

Fintan - 7 - Sat and played the holding role very effectively, allowing his partners to roam forward.

Hughes - 8 - Another good display, settled things in possession where possible and got forward plenty. Could and should have scored more than just the one.

Adkins - 8 - Far better than the week previous, worked harder and picked his passes far more intelligently. Became some sort of comedy jester as well with constant banter at the referee, which seemed actually to be just one way traffic. Telling him to get out of the way was good, asking if a player was "getting a yellow for the challenge (on Shannon) and another for dissent" was even better.

Cling - 7 - Good distribution from set-pieces and in wide areas, allowed the left wing to be overrun too much in the 2nd half.

J.Stewart - 7 - Some neat touches as always and chased down some lost causes with determination, but actually more quiet than usual.

Wommy - 6 - Ran into the channels well and put himself about first half, but seemed to drop off entirely after scoring (an assist for Owen Goal?), before coming off in case of injury.

Pasty - 6 - Pretty faultless in the time he had and almost made Parin wet himself when he had an attempt on goal.

Village - 5 - Made one good challenge in probably the only moment he was called upon.

It was a comfortable win, if a little laid back once the 3rd goal went in. More goals were undoubtedly on offer, but we actually allowed them a chance to get back into it in the second half. Positives though, the ball was knocked around reasonably well and the communication was far better than the week previous from everyone. When we applied pressure and shut down the opposition early, we got into good scoring positions easily as well. Overall it was an enjoyable game and that's the main thing.
The last league game comes against Real Madras which will be a test, the Leonard Vase cup - round 1 of a knock-out format - begins the week after. How many more games we play after that, rather confusingly for Dave Baird, is entirely up to us.