Oranges At Sixes And Sevens

Sat 8 March

All Stars 7 - 1 TP

The team news was the Andrew Owen returned from a month of scything, Trevor Lindsay making his second start down the left, and Debutant Mark Raines on the bench. Soldier Boy aka Ian Howard managed from the touchline as he had two broken toes.

A wretched second half display from the oranges meant that six goals were let in, that should have been prevented. However, there were some encouragements, like the quickness off the blocks to produce the first goal. Ferris Lindsay spotting the keeper off the line and superbly lobbing him in less than a minute, after a good through pass from Calvin Lindsay. After that start, the oranges pressed looking for a second, with Trevor Lindsay heading over and Nat Field shooting wide.

The equaliser came about halfway through the first half, a corner swung in, headed out by captain John Helm, and a half-volley dispatched into the bottom corner, through a crowded penalty box. The defensive offside trap was working well as a unit and on a number of occasions the opposition attack was denied by the (non existent) linesman’s flag. The best action came just before half time. Another cross was cleared by Andy Owen but it fell to the opposition’s play maker who smashed a full volley from 25 yards, which was tipped onto the bar by keeper Steve Speroni. At half time the oranges believe that this game was there for the taking but for some reason, didn’t show that on the pitch.

The second goal came five minutes after half time. A striker wasn’t closed down and he struck from the edge of the area into the bottom corner. Then the third went in and heads began to drop. A long range effort bobbled under Steve. Dan Spinola then started of a nice patch of football. Passing back to Dwayne Mitchell, who played a one-two with David Hambridge, played a ball to Calvin who played it onto his dad, whose shot went wide. The fourth rolled under Steve, the fifth was tapped past him, and the sixth was volleyed into the top corner after poor marking from David Hambridge. Mark Raines then came on for Andy, and he showed some nice early touches from the left wing to feed the ball to Nick who flicked it on to Ferris, who was pushed over by a two-handed push. Nick told the ref that he thought that was out of order, but the ref seemed to have a bigger go at Nick for arguing than the player who was guilty of the initial foul.

Then came the drama. A late penalty was given for a push by John, and the opposition player went crazy, punching a team mate and walking off because he wasn’t allowed to take it, even though he was the first to be offered it and turned it down. This initiated a scuffle, during which no TP player was involved. Swear words and insults were exchanged and so were fists. That undermined a game that was played in a competitive way, but that is no excuse. However, TP can be proud that they didn’t get involved. The penalty was converted by the way!