Stotfold 2 Knobs 4

A Baldock 3G astroturf pitch was the venue for this friendly against Stotfold. The even surface would surely enable the Knobs to display some slick passing and movement that the mud and grass so often interferes with.

The squad had a Europa Cup feel about it with the management giving some of our fringe players their chance to impress. The tight fitting bumblebee black and yellow kit was somehow preferred to the much more comfortable high vis orange option, despite no obvious clash with the home teams blue and purple colours. The number of beer bellies on display wouldn't exactly strike fear into any opposition worth their salt, but had Stotfold been lured into a false sense of security?

Dave J donned the goalkeeper's jersey, and was called into action early making a miraculous one-handed reflex save. The confidence of knowing we had such a safe pair of hands at the back flowed through the team and soon after Dave M opened the scoring, slotting deftly home with his favoured left foot, after Steve had split the defence with a lovely through-ball.

Although not exactly dominating, we looked the most dangerous team, and we duly went 2-0 up as Steve volleyed home brilliantly after some good work by Lee. Stotfold were shell shocked.
Midway through the half it was time for the first inspired substitution of the match. Twiggy was brought on for Chris and made an immediate impact. Unfortunately that impact was the ball striking his hand. For the second week running, we let the ball bounce across the six yard line after a well worked Stotfold short corner. Twiggy threw himself in to the action, a point-blank block was his first touch, more in self defence than anything else, however his hand was deemed to be in an unnatural position. Or perhaps it was being on the pitch at all which was the unnatural position. Twiggy would work hard through the rest of the match to make amends for this unfortunate start. Facing the penalty, Dave J opted to cover the centre of his goal, which he did admirably, unfortunately the ball was placed several feet away in the bottom corner. He dived belatedly, meaning when he stood up he was closer to where the ball had nestled in the back of the net some time earlier.

The game ebbed and flowed, but we regained our two goal advantage towards the end of the half. The gaffers second substitution proved more effective than the first. Greg was hauled off for a breather after a lackluster first 30 mins and it was his replacement that provided the next bit of magic. Gerry's deflected shot from outside the box looped over their keeper, and we went in at the break with the score at a slightly flattering 3-1.

In the second half, relations between the teams deteriorated along with the weather. One of their players took exception to the nature of James' tackle, which is perhaps understandable. He then tracked him across the pitch and gave James a bit back. Handbags ensued, and a couple of minutes later the yellow card was produced for their chap. A foul on Lee went unpunished on one side of the pitch, but when Dave M did the same on the other side the referee blew up, admittedly the Stotfold player went down pretty hard and took some time to get back up (unlike Lee who bounced straight back into action).

The referee kept control pretty well in increasingly difficult circumstances, although he seemed to have lost the use of his arms, resulting in confusion around several decisions. Also the use of the phrase "OK you can have that one" on a number of occasions made it feel like the ref himself was not sure if he was making the right call. However as he was by far the biggest and meanest looking bloke on the field, no-one complained too strongly.

As the half wore on we were increasingly playing on the back foot. They closed the gap to one with another penalty, this time Ali tripping their forward on the corner of the box as he headed safely towards the touchline. Dave's unorthodox approach to saving the penalty this time involved running in the direction of the post, which turned out to be where the ball was subsequently struck, before forgetting to dive, and allowing the ball to trickle in. Still, unbeaten from open play and all that.
At 3-2 up with 15 minutes remaining, the defending ranged from desperate to inspired and back to comical, including a goal line clearance. Backs were against walls and it looked like we might concede again, but matters were settled when Dave M wrapped up the metaphorical three points, and relieved the tension. Greg, reintroduced after 15 minutes of the 2nd half, played him in with a delightful back heel and this time Dave passed the ball into the net with his unfavoured right foot after neat work in the box. There would be no time for him to complete a perfect hatrick with a header, but having said that, we could of played on for hours and that would of been unlikely.
Overall the defence held up well through some tough spells of pressure, the midfield worked tirelessly as always and the strikers took their chances with some clinical finishing. The manager made some important saves and some... err... substitutions.

So a great result and a decent battling performance...but who will get the nod for next week? And more importantly, will we ever see the orange kit again? We hope so.

Knobs 2 MBDA 2

After a few weeks off due to weather / over cautious groundsmen we were set to play MBDA away in Walkern.  The day before the game we were told the pitch wasn’t playable!  With some hasty enquiries and some strong negotiations we moved the game to our home pitch.

The spirit in the changing room was good.  Dave J though was subdued, was walking funny and was clearly still feeling it (whatever “it” is) from his trip to see 50 shades at the cinema.  This may have been a reason he read his own team sheet out wrongly resulting in 12 people lining up at kick off.

Lee and Greg arrived late and won the sweeping honours, Lee promised to arrive at 9 AM next time.  Our foreign signing Jono said something which may have been motivating, Dave K sat still in his y-fronts whilst some of the team admired his torso.  Normal service had resumed.

After hearing about the farcical new goals being used the day before the team elected to get the old goals up.  At this point we had forgotten it was an away game and MBDA should have put up the goals.       
The game kicked off (after our 12 man left the field) and we looked like a team who has not played for a while.  2 minutes in, the ball was thrown into our box and allowed to bounce all the way into the 6 yard box and was tapped in.  One of the poorest goals we have let in this season.  We were still confident but were 2nd best for most of the half.  We were not winning the 50/50s and were 2nd to most loose balls.  Very unlike us. 

Shortly after the goal Dave K’s calf muscle burst and he limped off to be replaced by Chris C.  Still, he lasted longer than Paul Matthews does each game.

It was the first bit of quality play of the match that resulted in us scoring a great team goal.  The ball was played into Jono’s feet from Bully on the edge of our box, Jono flicked the ball to Darren running from the midfield, Darren fed Dave M who had peeled left, Dave M slipped the ball into the path of Lee who just had the keeper to beat from the angle.  Lee produced a sumptuous chip over the advancing keeper.

Special mention must go to Martyn who decided to pick up the ball and ask the ref for a foul whilst standing in his own D.  Fortunately for Martyn the resulting free kick MBDA got went over!

For the rest of the half the game followed the same pattern.  MBDA had more of the ball and spent more time in our half.  It was against the run of play that we scored our second goal.  This time we had gone forward in numbers and had men in their box.  The ball was half cleared under pressure but fell to Greg on the edge of the box.  Greg returned the ball with interest, a swerving dipping shot which beat the keeper easily.  Greg declared the shot was from 30 yards.

Birthday boy Banksy was brought on just before half time in another of his non-favoured positions, right back.

At half time we had the lead but had not played well.  Unusual for us as we have not had much luck this season!

Dave was still struggling and so Director of Football John arranged for Mrs Director of Football to give the half time team talk.  This clearly had a positive effect as the 2nd half performance was more like how we had been playing for most of the season.

From the off we dominated possession and chances.  We had a few free kicks on the edge of the box.  The keeper made a wonder save which goal line technology would have given us a goal for. The birthday boy missed a 1 yard side foot into an empty goal and the trees, corner flags and tennis courts took a peppering from our forwards.  We must have had a dozen shots to their 3.  Of their 3, 1 hit the cross bar, 1 just missed and the 3rd was a goal from the needless penalty we gave them.

The birthday boy withdrew from the match as the ground was too soft for him.

In the end we were frustrated to have drawn the match.  We should have put the game to bed many times over in the 2nd half but it was one of those days.

Most of us then went off to the pub to eat some brown with brown sauce and hear about the 2 wonder goals from the goal scorers when they finally arrived back from cleaning duty.

We were all delighted for the birthday boy when he won the scratch card but less so when he pocketed the cash and went home.

Next game is a friendly on Astro in Baldock.  The management dream team will be using the game to try out a few different tactics, players and line ups!