MBDA 5 Knobs 1

By gad twas a fierce, windy morning. Made controlled football difficult but they seemed to manage it on occasions. A poor response to the call to arms led to us having a bare eleven with even yours truly having to join the fray for a full game. I now know I'm permanently injured. We are in a league and we have several friendlies as well but there does not seem to be any particular interest in the nuances of this setup. Current personnel are just happy to play a few games here and there whether league or friendly. Fair enough sometimes we'll get a nice little win if the personnel available give us some strength and other times, this season more often than not, we will turn out and get a beating. Again, fair enough. Mind you one or two points of debate cease to be of any relevance in our set up. Eg. which is our best team, what is our best set up and  how far did tactics in a game benefit us or let us down. Just accept we turn up on a hope, wing and prayer that we have at least 11 players and players still young enough to know which boot goes on which foot.
They gained a 2-0 lead thanks to two controlled shots from the man Paine yet the floodgates did not open. Indeed we started to control the rest of the first half and were a tad unlucky to go in half time trailing only 2-1. Steve ended a constructive move by driving home into the corner albeit assisted slightly by a goalkeeping fumble.
Second half some of us claimed to be on the wrong end of linesman Chris Cox's flag. Ouch! Two goals resulted. I thought from my faraway vantage point that we were repeatedly caught far too square on several occasions from which their three second half goals resulted. They eased off and we were bereft of ideas going forward and all in all bereft of any forward play by the end, though Gerry went close to scoring.
Royal Oak, half a dozen in attendance, two wakes in a week, followed by Newcastle losing spinelessly to the Makkems in an awful game.
Happy Diwali! 

Therfield 2 Knobs 1

This game saw the managerial debut for the Knobs of our 4th choice manager Darren.

He was keen to make an impression which started by trying to leave the Station promptly to arrive on time.  The Chairman likes to arrive early to get his warm up in.  Having left the Station on time we almost left John Twig behind which meant he had to flag down Chairman Al as we set off down the hill.

The managerial performance can only be likened to that of Paulo DiCanio.  Within 2 minutes of arriving, Darren lost the changing room.  It was not so much the starting line-up that caused the rift but the fact that Darren had pre planned the substitutions if everyone turned up and things were going well.  So, Bully shouted at Darren, Darren ignored Bully, Chairman Al defended Darren, Bully argued with Chairman Al, Chairman Al argued with Tony, Tony shouted at Chairman Al.  The result of all this though was a post match man hug from Al to Bully. Bully then requested a box of chocolates just like Brendan got last season. Could this be the start of a beautiful romance? 

On the pitch things didn't go that well either.  Already without 3 strikers due to awaymatchitis, Joel who scored on his last outing and was due to lead the line pulled out on the morning of the match.  No surprise then that we struggled to hold onto the ball in the oppositions half.

We did have the majority of the possession in the first half and at 20 minutes in we had got in behind the Arseholes back 4 many times but lacked the final pass or accurate shot.  At this point we lost big Rob to a groin injury.  Rob had the key role of marking Squiffy, Aresholes main man.  Brendan strode on play left back, twiggy moved in to midfield.  Then further injury struck as the returning Martin bruised his knee and he hobbled off, meaning Tony K could put the linesman flag down he was using to keep the sun out of his eyes. (yes, he really did pick up the flag for a few minutes - early shout for Clubman!)

Despite the one way traffic the Ref saw fit to allow an Arsehole centre forward to shoulder barge Chris off the ball in the middle of the shoulder blades and whilst Chris picked himself up and we all shouted for the foul, the forward tucked the ball away and despite a lot of complaints the goal stood.  Shocking!

The Knobs pressure finally told though when one of the many corners was nodded in by an Arsehole centre back.  Richard claimed the assist as the ball brushed one of his hairs before the header.

Just before halftime Twiggy shocked the team by calling the ref a very unpleasant word.  His frustration of nearly being left behind clearly still angering him.

A rousing halftime talk by Tony K had the team going back out full of confidence.  Unfortunately our play did not match the speech.  We defended well and Tony did not really have to make any saves.  When we got the ball down and played (not often enough) we played some neat football which continued to get us in behind.  Gerry roasted the man mountain at full back many times, the sight of the full backs belly hanging below his shirt not affecting Gerry's concentration.

Brendan was clearly bored though and decided to catch the ball in our penalty box.  Good Tony clearly intimidated the taker though and the ball was rolled 2 yards wide.

The game continued in the same vain but alas, a loose ball played out of defence didn't reach our midfield, was intercepted and easily dispatched into our goal.

Game over.  Rubbish.

Off to the pub for giant sausage rolls and half cooked chips.

The manager was sacked then asked to take the position of social secretary.

Walkern 4 Knobs 2

Hot day, pleasant, slow tempo game, right result.
Goals from Joel, end of a good move and Darren, a flier creeps in under the bar.
Warm in pub glowingly reminiscing the 60's. Sums it up tersely.
Bye.