...boss says I'm going up in the world.
Ahem. Nothing funny about that "joke" and also nothing funny about losing to Reays when we deserved a draw. A very late (contentious?) pen sealing our fate with about 3 minutes to play. Lots of people away following the Seasonal Chocolate Eating Holiday (formerly known as "Easter"), so we had a bit of a late scramble to field a team. Thankfully Punter activated the F&P ringer alert and drafted in Alessandro Batistuta, Mark and (David) Blaine to make up the numbers. They all played very well, particularly Ale and Mark, who both had a good shout for MOTM, but Blaine put in a good shift in the first half too and sportingly went in nets for the second half after picking up a knock. Also "props" to Neal Chettle for putting his hand up for GK duties in the first half (as well as confirming availability the day before kick-off - a personal best). Starting line-up was:
Neal
Stu / Mark / Molby / Sheedy
Punt / Ale / Gorgonzola / Blaine
Ily / Latch
BOC scored first, about ten minutes in, with Ilyas crumbling from a kick to the ankle which won a FK. Punter stood over it, and I thought he was going to put his laces through it and either rocket it into the top corner or send it on walkabout into the outback. He did neither, instead dinking it tantalising into the box for Latch to run onto. The big 'un waved one of his go-gadget-stretch-from-fantastic-four legs at it and confused both the Reays keeper and defender into thinking he would divert the trajectory of the ball. Did he connect with it though? If you ask Latch he would say that he feathered it. If you ask Punt he would say that no one got a touch. Whichever it was, the ball continued on, hopping up and away from their stranded keeper to trundle into the goal. The three man panel in the pub decided it was Ponting's goal, he deserves it, always getting overlooked on assists and what-not in the stats. Sorry Chris.
Reays equalised fairly soon after, with a question of offside about it. Feeling aggrieved, BOC scored a well deserved second after some neat play. It was one of those rare occurences where we played more than three successful passes, moving it from the left to the middle before Latch made a smart turn and lofted a curling through ball over the top for Ilyas to finish right footed (!?) first time on the run. Very nice goal indeed. Reays got another back before HT, this one with a touch of hand-ball about the srtiker's control before he shot into the bottom corner.
The second half was cagey, and we were probably hanging on for quite a bit of it. Jordan nearly scroed a beaut though, hitting the post from outside the area with a curling left-foot effort. They also hit the post from about six yards, and were pressing us back with their speedy wingers and full-backs.
The final insult came when Molby failed to clear a high ball and then turned into their striker with his arm about chest height. The impact sent the Reays lad flying and from where I was stood it looked like a fairly clear pen. Molby disputed it in the pub though, saying there wasn't enough force in his arm to knock the oppo over, and he was just trying to hold-off him off and epected the same back as they jostled. The pen was given, and duly dispatched by their striker (the really nice bloke). I was sorely tempted to yell 'wanker' as he kicked it, a-la Tyson a few weeks back, but kept that scream to myself.
Hard lines for BOC, but a good performance from a pieced together line-up.
