TWFC

No subs collected for next game as Sports Centre uncertain whether matches will take place. We will know more once the new Covid19 Rule of Six has been interpreted in relation to our grass roots football.

Players
Bibs

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Hagenius, Israel90, JonF, MSGomes, Niyi, VIIGeorgeVII

Mufti

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andyhibbert, dabiyani1995, JakeFlowers, MarkA, Sadulla, Shain

This was the second Wednesday in September, there is something different about this fixture.

MSGomez opened the scoring for the Bibs before MarkA drew the match level.

At 11:59 Niyi was discussing with Hagenius whether he was a thoroughly bad keeper. To prove his point, in a moment of goalkeeping madness, Niyi passed the ball to the ultimate marksman Sadulla who forced him to make a point blank save.

Israel90 then hit two goals within 30 seconds. This could be the fastest brace on record, these can be seen at 12:20 and 12:47 on the video clock.

Bibs 3 Muftis 1

We know Sadulla is fast, he may even be faster than the likes of Arik, Koonal and VIIGeorgeVII. At 18:09, faster than someone could shout "man on, MAN ON..." Sadulla appeared seemingly out of nowhere to intercept a two yard back pass and score. In the Harry Potter films the magical practice of disappearing and suddenly reappearing out of nowhere is known as apparating. This is banned from all regular football. Close scrutiny of the video shows that Sadulla was always visible in each frame. Good goal.

Bibs 3 Muftis 2

Israel brought up his hat-trick and then his second brace at 19:00 and 21:56 respectively on the video clock

Bibs 5 Muftis 2

26:12 on the video clock, Shain receives the ball and draws in JonF, VIIGeorgeVII and Haggenius before casually flipping a pass to Sadulla who spins round his man and plants the ball sweetly beyond the keeper.

Bibs 5 Muftis 3

28:18 on the clock dabyani1995 splits the pitch with a trademark through ball to put andyhibbert through on goal. Andyhibbert doesn't miss those.

Bibs 5 Muftis 4

28:50 VIIGeorgeVII gets fed up of the simplicity of the game and goes on a mazy run to see if anyone can tackle him. No one could, so he put the ball away into the net and jogged back safe in the knowledge that he was still as good as before.

Bibs 6 Muftis 4

36:28 The two fastest players on pitch finally faced off, one on one. Sadulla, on the ball, glided past VIIGeorgeVII and mounted yet another attack on the Bibs' goal. This time he hit the side netting.

37:18 Ball to Israel90, a few yards outside of the Mufti's area. Absolutely no danger. Gently moving with the ball to his right, and inviting the defenders with him, Israel90 created enough space to at least see the goal. Still no apparent danger. Actually, there is always danger when Israel90 sees the goal. With the whole of the opposition watching him he simply caressed the ball into the unprotected left of the net. Even a keeper of the calibre of JakeFlowers was left rooted to the spot.

Bibs 7 Muftis 4

A kind of electricity in the air. No one does this to an andyhibbert team. We have not seen this since perhaps the six month period in 2016/17 when Austin had total dominance.

At 37:39 MarkA commenced a separate match score.

Winning the ball at 41:44 on the video clock from the wing andyhibbert looks up and sees there is no pass on, so like Israel90 he cuts in taking opposition players with him until he has sight of goal and scores.

Bibs 7 Muftis 5

41:57 MarkA continues his personal, but somewhat haphazard, scoring system. 42:03 unimpressed by this MSGomes asks all colleagues not to follow those scores.

Within seconds of the restart Sadulla assists dabiyani1995 to a well worked goal to mark his 100th appearance.

Bibs 7 Muftis 6

43:50 The mid pitch battle between VIIGeorgeVII and Sadulla was joined again. This time VIIGeorgeVII came away with the ball and sped away.

44:11 stern tackling by Hagenius cut an attack out and allowed him to run up the pitch and feed the ball to MSGomes to score from the narrowest of angles.

Bibs 8 Muftis 6

46:40 on the video clock Sadulla scores again from a simple route one pass.

Bibs 8 Muftis 7

Nothing could be left on the pitch. Keepers had to switch on, defence had to switch on, midfield had to switch on and strikers had to be lethal. Suddenly the daylight between the Bibs and Muftis was almost gone.The match was about to explode into a real end to end ding dong affair.

Clock ticking down.

48:52 on the video JonF runs with ball from his own half and crafts an opportunity for the Bibs. He leathers a fine shot at goal but Shain has it covered.

Clock ticking down.

49:10 Sadulla and andyhibbert combine. for the Muftis, keeper covers Andy's shot.

Clock ticking down

48:20 VIIGeorgeVII runs from his own half for the Bibs and shoots. Shain has it covered.

Clock ticking down

50:36 JakeFlowers puts andyhibbert through on goal for the Bibs. JonF in close attention does just enough to put him off and ball rolls past the outside of the post. To the wander of the keeper someone mutters that is a foul. This becomes a chant and MarkA, now in role of adjudicator, lambasts the Bibs for 'cheating too much'.

Acting as an advocate for peace MSGomes awarded the foul and free kick in favour of the Muftis.

Having watched the incident frame by frame it is still not possible to see what truly happened. VAR is technically only for clear and obvious errors. With this incident, on our own pitch, we now see how difficult it must be to be a referee or a video assistant.

The free kick was smothered and still the clock ticked down.

52:23 MarkA takes the ball in his own half and like dabiyani1995 he cut the pitch in half with a perfectly weighted ball for andyhibbert to shoot narrowly wide for the Muftis.

Match almost over. Still Bibs 8 Muftis 7.

53:41 MarkA, on the halfway line, sees dabiyani1995 making a run down the right for the Muftis. He switches the ball into dabiyani1995's path. Dabiyani1995 shoots to draw the match level for the Muftis but the Bibs' keeper has it covered.

54:30 Bibs attack again with andyhibbert asking in increasing frustration if the Muftis could see what had happened. Ball falls to the danger man Israel90, he hits it from 2 yards for glory for the Bibs but Shain has it covered.

Match almost over.

55:40 Dabiyani1995 to Sadulla, Sadulla to andyhibbert on the left. Andyhibbert returns the ball to Sadulla in the middle, he switches the ball to the right. MarkA brings it under control for the Muftis. Hagenius closes MarkA down. The keeper narrows the angle. With hardly anything to aim at MarkA somehow guides the ball into the net.

GOAL!!!!

Bibs 8 Muftis 8.

if Aubameyang Mane, Kane, Salah or Vardy had scored that goal it would have been celebrated as the ultimate calm finish.

For the first time since virtually the start of the match the Muftis had drawn level and had the momentum to even snatch the win.

56:40 Muftis craft yet another move all down their right channel and edge the ball up the pitch to set andyhibbert free to close out the match. Andyhibbert does not miss these opportunities. He pulled the trigger and fired for the win. 9 times out of 10 that ball would have gone in. This time the keeper pulled off a reaction save.

Seconds later our colleague CW1st, who had come along purely to watch, announced it was 9pm. Match over. Remember we have promised the centre that we will finish on time each week.

Final Score

Bibs 8 - 8 Muftis

Match declared a Noble Draw. Let's do it all again next match at Tottenham Wednesday FC

Things To Note

Reading the FA's Covid19 guidance we seem to qualify as engaging in registered outdoor grass roots football. With this in mind the final decision on whether our matches continue to be hosted will be communicated to us from the Sports Centre.
Further reading of the bespoke protective guidance from the FA still strongly indicates that, in the absence of a person who is formally responsible for kit, we should each provide our own tops.
Our web site remains open for match bookings and the email list will be notified during the day on Wednesday if we are not allowed to continue playing.