Harmonious Oranges?

Harmony 0 – TPFC 5

Saturday 15 December, Wanstead Flats

Strange title for such an occasion I know, but let me begin…

With the Gaffer tucked up in his sick bed, it fell to the returning Captain to concoct a plan of action.

With 2 significant changes – Dwayne to right back and Samuel to Centre midfield, we had the look of a balanced team with options to attack from the back through the fullbacks. However, no-one could have anticipated having to wait nearly 30mins for the 8 players making up the opposition.

Thoughts quickly turned to making the most of our advantage and climbing the table and reducing the goal difference defiecit – if only our intentions could have mirrored our actions!

Playing against 8 men proved very difficult, especially with several Harmony players being more than comfortable with the ball at their feet – thoughts quickly turned to the fateful Springfield performance.

A little shuffle of the pack putting Nick into the Centre of midfield and Samuel out on the wing to try and get more from both players seemed to work, and TP started to find some space and rhythm. We were able to start moving forward and put the opposition under pressure and winning corners.

A corner was won on the right and was taken by Calvin, who put a vicious bend on the ball which flew into the net at the back post!

Finally a breakthrough and we can start to relax and play…

And we did – another corner won on the left, taken by Nick and helped into the net by Eddie, or so our Captain wanted to believe! Although inches away, Eddie declared it an own goal – but what a header!

Now – to be said and never to be mentioned again – our nameless left back, winning the ball and finding himself with racing through the Harmony half – he would have got a nose bleed if the blood in his veins hadn’t frozen solid – found himself one on one with the keeper after beating the chasing defenders and put it over the bar for a glorious 3 points – are his Rugby appearances clouding his decision making?

A one on one fell to Calvin, who, after evading an offside trap that was proving effective, had run the ball through the middle to round the keeper and hit a spot only a couple of inches below Two Codes to put us 3 and 0.

The only other highlight of the first half involved Steve being tested in goal – nothing to a drilled in high ball towards goal, he got his hands behind it and pushed it away.. only to find a blue shirt sneaking in to get his head on the ball. Thankfully the outstretched arm of Steve managed to swat the ball to safety.

Whistle blown for half time and the oranges come in for words of direction from the skipper and coach – surely the 3 man advantage would pay off in the second half?

And it was looking good.

We started the half with our best football – build up play at the back lead to a break down the right, Femi finding the space to take it down the line and feed the ball into the middle, but Harmony were able to clear.

Samuel was beginning to find space to move into and pressure the Harmony defence; Dwayne was getting comfortable and was looking to start nice passing moves, UtilityMan was surging forward to make the 3 man advantage come into play, whilst John kept winning the tackles and finding space to carry the ball. Even our left back had forgotten his first half experience and was bursting forward to influence the game.

And this football continued, but was interrupted on a couple of occasions by breaks from Harmony, one resulting in a free kick 25yrds out. A rocket was hit and the wall was beaten, only for the head of John to get behind it and send it away.

It was no longer one way traffic, and tackles were needed from the defence and midfield. But the Enforcer was still able to find some key passes from the loose balls and send us on breaks, one of which saw number 4 from TP and number 4 (for the season) from one legged Ferris – a rocket across the goalie.

Steve was beaten after the defence was left unprotected but he had done enough to send the blue shirt wide not to have a clear enough angle on the goal to get a consolation.

This was preceded by the other Speroni proving talk at the Christmas dinner entirely right – that he didn’t have a right foot! With only one defender to beat, he decided to it 3 times to try and find an angle for his favoured left boot, but this was once too many and the moment was passed.

But again, Calvin to the rescue with a historic moment for the Oranges, when for a second time he rounded the keeper to bury his third – the match ball was surely his (if it didn’t belong to Harmony!).

More chances came, more breaks were made by Harmony, but the 80minute match was concluded at 5-0. Memories turned to the Pembroke game where the Oranges proved the score could be kept respectable against a team lacking numbers, but this was little consolation for what was hoped to be a bigger win.

But it was a win none-the-less, a clean sheet to go with the clean sheet presented to Steve for leaving, but without whom we may not have had one yet, and another name to add to the goal scorers list.

It is hard to take anything from playing 8 men, however, 3 points were taken, as was the realisation that hard work, passing options and hortatio semper are going to be needed in 2008 if we are to continue our assult on the NELCL!

Team: Maverick; Dwayne, John ©, Utility Man, Andrew; Femi, Enforcer, Nick, Samuel; Ferris, Calvin;

Goals: Calvin (3), OG, Ferris

Man of the Match: The Enforcer – kept his head, kept a good position, fed some nice passes and found the loose balls to keep Harmony pegged back.

Attendance: 3 – Natalie, Linda and our youngest attending fan, frozen Eliana.