Oranges Off Colour

Sat 23rd March

Blackhorse Road 9 TPFC 0

Something’s are best forgotten – in this case the score – but it doesn’t reflect what positives there were from this game.

Playing the league leaders after a battling performance in the last league outing which saw a draw with Walthamstow, the team were full of optimism going into this game and rightly so. That confidence ignited TPFC, who for 30mins dominated the game and made numerous chances.

Adam was finding the space to get shots of from distance and Eddie joined in. The best chance fell to Nathaniel, who battled the centre back to make the space to drill a shot which snuck past the far post.

Daniel in midfield was winning the ball and turning the opposition inside out to make plenty of space for himself to play in. Femi and Calvin on the flanks were having great joy, beating the defenders for pace and getting involved in some great passing moves – Dwayne and David (the days full-backs) were joining in and getting forward, reslting in david fling the full force of a massive tackle from one of Blackhorse Roads giants.

Unfortunately the dominance was interrupted by a break from Blackhorse which resulted in a vicious drive bouncing on a sand pit of a goal mouth and beating Steve.

Further adding to the lack of favour shown by the run of the ball was an injury to Calvin which saw him replaced by TP’s own Bionic Man Ferris (Ed’s Note – John Terry has nothing on this man!).

This didn’t stop TP trying to play, but the ball was running in Blackhorse Road’s favour and resulted in a penalty and some more excellent finishing from the league leaders.

TP came in 5 down at half time and this overshadowed the dominance that was shown. The half time team talk signalled an intention to get back to the way the first 30mins was played and to enjoy the next 45mins. Femi at this point made way for Sam and TP went 4-4-2, with Ferris and Sam leading the line and Nat moving to left midfield.

And for spells during the 2nd half some great football was played. Although Blackhorse were dangerous, this was more often a result of a long ball – TP were trying to play the way the game was meant, short passes and movement of the ball and it was effective and would have been more so against a lesser team.

The final score was 9, but the fact is we were playing against the league leaders and we were playing better football than the previous game when we should have won.

Sometimes in football you don’t get what you deserve. Sometimes you get more than you deserve.

The score is best forgotten.

The way we played football should be remembered. As should the drive to ensure the score didn’t reach double figures.

But our perspective on things should be this… that this is only a game and, after events in the Arsenal game, we should be thankful to the Lord for keeping us all safe in the games we have played so far.

Men of the Match:
Dan Spinola – always looking to create and win the ball
Nat Field – thankless task up against a solid defence, yet kept battling to get on the end of chances.

Team:
S. Speroni;
D. Mitchell, I. Howard, J. Helm, D. Hambridge;
F. Oyeniran, A. Campbell, E. Campbell, D. Spinola, C. Lindsay;
N. Field;

Subs:
F. Lindsay on for C. Lindsay
S. Balogun for F. Oyeniran
N. Speroni for D. Mitchell


VACANCY:

Enforcer Required!

TPFC have a vacancy for a holding midfield ‘Enforcing’ role:

The required player must be able to fill the boots of a staple member of the team and be able to:

Do the simple things in a Claude Makelele manner;
Have an engine that ends in charges forward to make up numbers and get the occasional goal;
Unleash shots from distance that can catch everyone off-guard;
And finally…
Be a model player who plays for the team and in a manner that has set the standard for what TPFC is all about.

Thank you Eddie for everything you have done for the team. You will always be welcomed back as the original Enforcer!