Wilbury Wanderers 4 vs KNOBS 3 (But we win on appeal!)

It was a funny old game as Greavsie used to say. The lunchtime kick-off was clearly more popular with them than it was for us and the original referee. This was reflected in the fact that we let in a goal after 10 seconds!  Despite this early set back though, we battled back into the game well and it wasn’t long before we were level as Dave Millhouse nipped onto a poor headed back pass and finished with a beautiful lob. We were having a lot of success down the right flank but sadly many of the attacks came to nothing. They scored a second before half-time but I can’t remember much about that.

In the second half, Steve came on, with Ross moving to the right flank after previously being on the left flank.  They scored a third when their twat of a centre forward managed to get to the by-line and cross the ball which seem to evade all our defenders and one of their guys kicked the ball in. Steve then scored the goal of the game and potential KNOBS goal of the season with a jinking run that took him past three defenders before calmly chipping over the keeper from some distance. They then scored a fourth after another change when the player-manager took himself off and Lee came on (he was told a wrong time to meet at The Station) with Paul moving to a central midfield role. Basically one of their guys toe-punted the ball into the top corner…from the comments afterwards, it appears he has a knack for it. Dave managed to get another goal, again nipping in after a poor back pass and slowly the game petered out with continual ill-feeling and they won 4-3. They probably were the better team but seeing their goalkeeper time waste as if it was a Champions League match was something to behold and made for a rather frustrating time.

However, after the game we did point out that they had been playing with a 31 year old which is against the league rules. Darren had used the guy to do some work for him and had informed him he couldn’t play for the KNOBS due to his age. Clearly that hadn’t stopped Wilbury accepting his services. Chairman Al informed their guy that we would be putting in a complaint. They then said that we should have informed them but Darren had pointed out to a number of their players that he was under-age and yet he still continued to play. We probably wouldn’t have been so petty if we considered them a nice bunch of lads but alas…we didn’t. Which all adds some spice to the next time we see them which will be in the Herts County Cup in two weeks.

The team played well in patches. Paul really holds up the play well and when moved to the middle in the second half we missed that up front. Dave is a very tidy finisher when he gets the chance. That combo could have plenty of goals if they play enough together!

Nearly forgot…Tony C wanted me to point out that he basically started the move that set up Steve’s goal.  To be honest, he could probably say that for nearly every goal we’ve ever scored! Oh…he also made two fantastic saves…one going into the top corner in the first half and a one-on-one in the second. But writing that just reminded me of the second goal. Tony came out to punch the ball and was beaten by a header that went into the empty net.

Team: Tony C, Gerry, Richard, Chairman Al, Dave, Gavin, Bully, Darren, Ross, Dave M, Paul. Subs: Lee and Steve