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.