Vale’s first league game of the season saw us playing away in Habberley against Hire It Harriers. Pre season form hadn’t been great, but after coming away from the same fixture last season with three points, Vale went into the game with more hope than they had done in last season’s opening fixture.
Frompa Thompa (our GK for anyone unaware of one of his many nicknames) decided to go with five in midfield and one up front. The one up front being our new signing ‘Jyla’. Frompa had quite a selection headache before the game, and ended up with Dirky, Ric and Ric on the bench. The strongest bench we’ve probably ever had and all could argue they may have started. The biggest blow to team morale though, was that of Frompa’s failure to complete the signing of ‘Ross Albert Merrion Wilde’ who ended up being eligible for this fixture. Just think how strong our bench could have been….. “Sorry Dirky, but we can only make three substitutions. On you come Merrion”.
The first half saw us playing down the hill (very professional sounding) and we started well. Harriers found themselves on the back foot for the first five or ten minutes and had to defend a couple of dangerous looking corners. As the half wore on the game became more evenly matched and if it wasn’t for a wonder save from BLT (our Gk for anyone unaware of one of his many nicknames) we could have easily found ourselves going in at half time, one goal down. As it was though, the half came to a close with the scores still level at nil - nil.
We started the 2nd half poorly and found ourselves playing in our own half for the first ten minutes. We couldn’t maintain any real possession and as a result the ball just kept coming back. Jyla was having a good league debut for us, putting himself about and giving us a good aerial presence up front, but far to often he was left on his own without any real support and had to feed off scraps as a result (you may have to get used to that I’m afraid mate). That was until Vale managed to string a few pass’s together and hit Hire It Harriers on the break. Gaylo played a nicely weighted through ball over the top for Jyla who finished well and notched his first league goal for the club.1-0
We held onto our lead for longer than we generally managed last season, but sure enough, an equaliser did come. They broke down the left and as BLT advanced off his line to narrow the angle, the Hire It Harriers player ‘lobbed Frompa’ and watched as the ball nestled in the far corner. 1-1
With Hire It Harriers now on top and with the momentum, Vale feared the worst. We dug in though and everyone continued to work hard for the team. Quietly but hard!! On that basis, maybe we deserved the bits of luck that came our way. Two hand ball shouts against us were both turned away (One of which saw Pascy playing pat-a-cake with ball whilst lay next to it) and then came our biggest stroke of luck. A ball up to Jyla was superbly won in the air and played out to Si on the left. His cross into the danger area was then promptly headed home by THEIR centre half. 2-1
Our luck ended there though as moments later, Dirky (who had come on for Jyla) watched as his header came off the bar and down onto the goal line. It wasn’t even half a chance and the quality of the header certainly deserved a goal. (Dirky’s shout of ‘F*CK’ was quickly followed with a quick ‘sorry ref’) All of this meant however, that we still only had the one goal advantage and as a result Hire It Harriers began to push for an equaliser more and more. It came….. A throw in down our left hand side came into the box and Vale were slow to clear. A crisp turn and shot saw Frompa beaten and the scores level once again. 2-2
With the scores at 2 a piece both teams had chances in the final moments to take all three points. Vale’s best chance coming when Dirky found himself one on one with their keeper. Unfortunately their keeper got a hand to Dirky’s shot and the resulting corner came to nothing.
