TWFC

Tonight we welcomed Anthonyto, a friend of Kaichan’s, to his first match. We further welcomed Koonal back from a year away in Europe. To top things off we also welcomed back MartinMac, a player that we believe has not graced the fixture since the 44 goal, double hat-tricks for Christmas, thriller on 11 December 2013 .

Ours is believed to be a regulation 6 a- side pitch and tonight it hosted seven - v – seven. This being that classic fixture set up for those players who can thread the ball through the eye of a needle and those players who can anticipate space where none currently exists. All of the players whose names start with a ‘J’ did I hear someone say?

The match was tentative as six Muftis started against seven Bibs. It was 1 - 1 when the seventh Mufti arrived and, having contained the Bibs for the first quarter, it was assumed the Muftis would go on to overwhelm the Bibs. On the contrary the Bibs started finding space in the only place that it was hardest to defend it, right on the edge of the Muftis’ penalty area. Players ghosting in behind the Muftis’ defence were able to slot home twice to take the score to 3 – 1.

The Muftis got a goal back before Scott lost his marker/s and unpicked their defence with a trademark rocket. This led to serious recriminations as Scott had come to the match from a 100 mile charity bike ride the previous Sunday so should not have had the legs to be able to run rings around players.

The match went back and forth and from 4 – 2 it eventually went to 5 – 3 to the Bibs who, with traditional Barkball thoughtfulness, were doing exactly enough to grind down their opponents. The Muftis were sternly warned against playing the kind of game that had seen England eliminated from the 2016 Euros. French flair was asked for and the match was brought back to 5 – 4. There was some controversy along the way as a ball stunningly tipped over by the Bibs’ keeper came back down and into play from an over head height position and was put into the back of the net exploiting ‘the play on off the keeper‘ rule. While sides prepared for a debate JonF awarded the goal to the Muftis and the match continued.

Leading 5 – 4 with the other team beginning to arrive the Bibs could afford to simply soak up the pressure and hit on the break. The Muftis attacking midfield were given a tactical change. They were given licence not defend but to press the Bibs and go for broke or else lose. This resulted in the match being pulled back to 5 – 5, the Muftis were then instructed to maintain German efficiency. With the noble draw in sight the Muftis who had been behind for most of the night finally breathed a sigh of relief. Their new found freedom resulted in the Muftis crafting a sixth goal to take an unexpected 6 – 5 lead.

With the match ebbing away the Bibs were behind and in danger of losing. Roles reversed, suddenly the Bibs had to prove they could come forward. As they did this they were hit on the break twice by the Muftis, only stunning saves kept the Bibs from defeat. But despite their keepers keeping them in the game the Bibs were still losing and more of the other team were arriving at the gate. The Muftis were seeing the match out. Then suddenly a speculative Bibs’ shot arced towards the Muftis’ goal. It was well covered until at the last possible moment it was deflected by Shain and spun cruelly into the net. 6 – 6. Shain had got his reward for industriously ploughing a furrow up front for significant periods of the match.

It was still 6 – 6 when the other team whistled to end the match.

Match declared a noble draw.

Muftis 6 – Orange Bibs 6

Things to Note

Barkball was heard to comment that the head height rule really does need clarifying.

In truth the rule is believed to be reasonably clear when it helps a side and as opaque as mud when it does not. The last revision was following a proposal by Scott on 7 October 2015 . As this is still within the last year players are asked to play to the Scotsonian Rules and suck up any pain for another two months at which point there will be a leeway to undertake a review.

Anthonyto had a sterling debut and forced Kaichan to pull off one of the saves of the season.
Koonal and MartinMac made scoring returns as if they had never been away.

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