After our manager quit for the 5th time this season, the interm manager of Adam Bowden was tasked to try and bring home 3 points for SCC. Our intern manager made some big calls even before the game was underway, with Hutch moving from 18th choice penalty taker under the previous management regime to the number one spot. There seemed to be severe distress with this accouncenent with certain players asking for his head even before the game had stated. “What the ...... is he doing”. The manager Faith was repaid when Liam was brought down in the box and Hutch slotted home. Aioli got a deserved equaliser soon after with a nice ball to the back post found there striker to knock home. Half time 1-1 with both teams looking capable of winning the game SCC started better in the second half and went 2-1 up after some good work from Liam down the left, who found Hutch to Flick home. Aioli equalised soon after to make it 2-2. Hutch then scored his first hatrick in 10 years after someone great work in the middle of the field by Mike, who split the defence for Hutch to slide past the goal keeper. Hutch, however wasn’t the only player playing today. Jahan scored his trade mark driving run to finish and Liam made it 5-2 with a quite delightful lob from 35 yards out. Aioli got a consolation goal near the end to finish the game 5-3
A decent performance from Aioli Monkeys eventually ended in a 5-3 defeat against a clinical SCC side. We had much the better of the first half but unfortunately found ourselves on the wrong end of a couple of questionable decisions by the officials early on in the game. The first a disallowed goal for offside after Ivan’s cross evaded everyone and Addy put it in at the back post. A truly baffling decision from the linesman. The second, minutes later, a penalty to SCC after what looked like a perfectly good tackle. We battled back and got a deserved equaliser after the marauding Seb put in a superb back post cross. Peter plucked it out of the air like a young Dennis Bergkamp and calmly squared it to Matt the makeshift striker, who controlled it, made himself a cup of tea, surveyed the Dempsey flora and fauna, and when he was finally ready, passed it into the corner. 1-1 Our tails were up at the break but we were wary of the threat of Liam, who our opponents seemed to be getting the ball to at every opportunity. Despite going behind just after the break, we equalised within minutes when JJ fired one into the top corner from the edge of the box to make it 2-2. Great finish, and with JJ, Mikel and Harry pulling the strings in midfield we felt we had a great chance at this point. It wasn’t to be as we conceded a couple of soft goals from defensive lapses, before a great lobbed finish from SCC’s main man killed us off at 5-2. We still had time for a late consolation from Harry which, depending on who you believe, was either “an absolute rocket that went straight into the top corner”, or a shot that actually went wide and got caught in the back of the net, deceiving the seemingly undeceivable referee. We’ll never know... Mikel was our man of the match by a landslide. Great player and a massive shame that that was probably his last game for us.