To Be or Not To Be

Sat 15 March 2008

TP 3 – 4 Harmony

What a game! There was excitement, debate, bookings, goals, mistakes, moments of class, friendships, but most of all a cracking atmosphere amongst the players. This game should have been videoed and put on match of the day! Having said that, if it hadn’t been for a few errors from TP, they surely would have won. The Harmony team were taking their chances, throwing players forward in the early stages, and got caught out by a counter attack started by Dan Spinola, who played Calvin Lindsay in down the right, and he won a corner. Nick swung the corner in and after a scrap, David Hambridge shot wide.

The first goal came about fifteen minutes in. The ball was struck from the edge of the area after some nice running by a winger and the ball crept underneath Steve Speroni. Trevor Lindsay almost got TP back on level terms after some nice work by Dwayne Mitchell, whose cross found his Trevor, who headed over. The second goal went in and this was an unfortunate goal because the ball struck Samuel Balogun, who was nicknamed Adebayor by Dwayne and One of their strikers, and went past Steve. Shortly after another goal went in, this time a striker went through down the left, after an appeal by Andy Owen for offside was ignored by our own ref Ian Howard (whose toes are still keeping him out of action), and the on rushing striker tucked it past the on rushing Steve. Their keeper was then forced into saves from Nat Field, Ferris Lindsay, and Nick Speroni. Going in at half-time 3-0 down, the oranges looked dead and buried.

The second half kicked of and immediately the oranges won the ball back through Nick, who played a ball to Ferris, who volleyed over from outside the box. TP struck back when the opposing keeper exceeded the six second rule, and an indirect free kick was given inside the box. Dave and Calvin were disrupting the keeper and opposition players as Sam waited. The whistle went and Nick laid the ball off to Sam, who lived up to his Adebayor nickname, and he curled the ball into the far corner. With half an hour to go, Dan had a shot in the box that took a deflection and looped over the bar. Dan had a go at himself for missing but he was about to make up for it from the following corner. Calvin and Nicks set pieces had all been superb and this was no different. Cal whipped it in far post and Dan jumped beating four players, including Sam, to head in from a tight angle. 3-2 were they going to do it?

Then Harmony sent on another striker and the game began to open up. The striker ran down the left past Sam and looked about to score when Dave came in with a sliding tackle to knock it out for a corner. Again Harmony broke and this time they scored. The striker lobbed Steve, who had little to do in the second half, and looked to be going straight in. But instead the ball bounced along the bar three times above Dave’s head. When it finally came down, the striker smashed it in. Heads began to drop, but certain individuals, most notably Nick and Dan, insisted the game wasn’t over. Even the ‘unbiased’ ref had words of encouragement. Nat then showed some nifty footwork and played in Calvin, who forced the keeper into a good save. There were five minutes to go and their keeper thought he was Ronaldinho. They say all keepers are crazy, and this one proved so as he lost the ball to Ferris, who side footed home. 4-3 and TP were flooding the Harmony penalty area, even sending up Steve in the last minute, but the ball didn’t fancy going into the net again. The whistle went and all the players came off with a sense of excitement. A great game!