TWFC

We welcomed the new year in with Fabiocc17 delivering the four new footballs that he had sourced for the club. Many thanks to Fabiocc17, Hagenius and MarkA for making this happen. The balls were funded from the kitty of subs credits donated by former regulars towards club equipment. Thank you cherished colleagues.

The club is grateful to guests Pedro and Justin, who came along to help us achieve a six-a-side formation.

Niyi was running late due to the ongoing rail strike. In spite of his injury MarkA kindly stepped in to cover.

Ed commenced the new year where he had left off the old by scoring the first goal of the game in under two minutes. Brightonlondon equalised for the Orange Bibs a minute later after being gifted the ball from a Mufti's goal kick. In quick succession Shaun also caught the Mufti in possession and teed the ball up for himself to volley into the net. This is not an easy technique and early career players are advised to watch it in slow motion .

Mufti 1 - 2 Orange Bibs

While this was going on Niyi arrived. MarkA was provided with the match official's cards that Hagenius had given to the club the previous week and he switched to the role of match referee. Within in seconds of receiving the cards MarkA gave Niyi a yellow card for being late. Technically a referee cannot give a yellow card for this reason so it has been deemed a ceremonial gesture which was useful for MarkA to get familiar with the act of brandishing a card.

Jumhal equalised on 12 minutes after Ed caught the Orange Bibs in possession. Prior to Jumhal's scoring you can hear plaintive cries of 'Go keeper. Go keeper'. Actually thinking about it you can hear something similar before Shaun's goal. There may be a lesson herein. Yes you got it, there is no shame in passing back to the keeper (except, of course, if you have just received the ball from the keeper).

Mufti 2 - 2 Orange Bibs

Fabiocc17 was booked on 18 minutes for a deliberate handball which interruputed a goal scoring opportunity. Examination of the footage shows he was not quite the last man back when he palmed BILZ96's perfectly floated pass out of the air. BILZ96 had the last laugh when he got on the end of the quickly taken free kick to make it Mufti 3 - 2 Orange Bibs.

20 minutes on the clock saw a double save from Andyhibbert which stopped the Mufti's pressure from resulting in a two goal cushion. With this Andyhibbert joins the ranks of players who are considered full all rounders by virtue of doing a good job in every position on the pitch.

On 23 minutes Guest Pedro pounced for the Orange Bibs to score his debut goal at our fixture. He took the Mufti's defence apart and by sheer determination made an opportunity for himself to finish off of the underside of the cross bar.

Mufti 3 - 3 Orange Bibs

25 minutes on the clock saw Brightonlondon on the end of a well worked team goal to give the lead back to the Orange Bibs and then on to his hat-trick a few minutes later.

Mufti 3 - 5 Orange Bibs

The Muftis almost produced an equally well crafted goal when JakeFlowers and Justin combined to mesmerise the Orange Bibs resulting in Justin taking three players out of the game in the center of the pitch then slotting the ball to BILZ96, whose shot was only thwarted by the cross bar.

On 36 minutes Jumahal took the ball in midfield, beat his marker, and advanced on goal to make it Mufti 4 - 5 Orange Bibs.

The pressure was telling and only a couple of saves from Fabiocc17 twice prevented JakeFlowers from equalising.

Eventually Shaun snuffed out a Mufti's midfield move and rifled a shot from distance, just inside the post, Ronnie O'Sullivan snooker stylee.

Mufti 4 - 6 Orange Bibs

Ball out from Orange Bibs' keeper, BILZ96 robs the Orange Bibs outfield player, BILZ96 slots the ball to Ed on the left hand side of the area. There could be only one realistic result. Mufti 5 - 6 Orange Bibs. By now you can probably see that if Coach Hagenius were around there would be ructions about the number of goals conceded from balls out from the keeper or players in the final third losing the ball. Anyway he could not attend this match and the teams should keep it to themselves.

In the dying seconds of the match, the other team had arrived. Their leader called 'winning goal'. In our parlance that means we are into the last seconds and the game will end with the next goal. The ice cold combination of BILZ96 and Ed combined to level the match.

Mufti 6 - 6 Orange Bibs

Our intrepid referee overruled the next team and called 'two minutes more'. This felt right, as we were not long into the final five minutes he had previously called. With the game drawing to a close the Mufti were in control of the ball, the referee had called last minute and the clock was ticking down to zero. Then it happened. Possession was lost by the Muftis, balled arrived with Fabio who spotted JonF running down the wing. Simple pass from Fabio into JonF's path. JonF lashed it first time and did what JonF often does, he won the match with the last kick of the evening. It had been a great evening and by the end of it the teams were only separated by a whisker. Guests Pedro and Justin had acquitted themselves excellently for their respective teams.

Match ball is shared between Brightonlondon and Ed who both scored a hat-trick.

Final Score

Mufti 6 - 7 Orange Bibs

Match awarded to the Orange Bibs

Let's do it all again next match at Tottenham Wednesday FC

Finally on a sad note, on 29 December 2022 the world of football lost Edson Arantes do Nascimento, better known by his nickname Pelé. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time and was always looked up to by every great of generations after him to this very day. He holds a world record three World Cups and 1,279 goals in 1,363 games. These were all achieved in the context of a time when football was a rugged rough sport, the ball was heavy and there was very little protection for players. He was voted World Player of the Century by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) and was one of the two joint winners of the FIFA Player of the Century.

To have been able to introduce the beautiful game in the era in which he played leaves Pelé arguably the greatest of all time. We love our football at TWFC and we take a moment to salute the passing of the king.

Rest in peace Pelé.