Like a bizarro Cinderella, four suitors came with spare size 11s but the slippers just wouldn’t fit. Until club leg-end and President, Sean Wall found a spare size 12s down the back of the couch. Fly-by-night Niall could make his debut for the season and bang in three goals before his pumpkin departed to the magical land of Phuket where he’ll take up residence. After nearly letting the French in after 30 seconds, we settled in nicely and grew a two goal lead thanks to Shailer’s second assist of the season and Niall rampaging through and then taking his peno well for his second. Just on the whistle of half time after beginning to get some possession for the last ten, the French got in down the right and squeezed the ball over the line. 2-1 half time. Then like the benevolent fairy godmothers that we are, 30 seconds into the second half we under hit a routine back pass and 2-2. We soon lost our third starting midfielder to injury and from here we began to fade in the middle, the game dynamic changed and the French grew in confidence, particularly down our right. Angus lobbed one in from half way and Niall did the rest again. 3-2. The French hit the post and we were hanging in. Then finally after a lot of pressure they scored with a low drive from outside the box. So, what next? Both teams off their feet…literally lads on their knees at times from both sides…ding dong …and basically everyone too tired to finish. 3-3 a fair result for the game overall and another draw against our Gallic cousins. Thanks for the game! Until the next Fairytale…
This game was the opportunity to bounce back and bridge the gap with Gaellic but the elements (once again?) were against us. Lot of players missing for this game but we managed to pull out a decent squad at the very last minute. Game did not start well. Gaellic put a lot of pressure and we were cut in two struggling to get decent possession. On top of that we were absolutely blinded by the sun in each long ball which resulted in a first cheap goal conceded. This was followed by a very very controversial decision where a penalty was awarded with a totally non voluntary hand ball without any immediate danger. We did not give up and Ewan managed to reduce the score from a good cross from JB. 2-1 at half time. Second half started much better and Gaellic offered us the equaliser Valentin not letting the chance pass. Again a cheap goal conceded put us behind but JB equalised with one of his secret long shot. Then like last week we had at least 4 chances to be ahead hitting the post twice … the football gods are clearly against us and we instructed the team to all head to temple/mosque/ church/ synagogue on Sunday … hope it will pay next week Thanks to the Gaellic and the ref for a very competitive game