TWFC

Justin marked his debut by scoring the first goal of the evening. The goal is noted for the way he bossed his way past three marginally interested opposition defenders before placing the ball past the keeper. We are used to watching that kind of defending from a North London team in recent times but normally only on Match of the Day.

The Blue Bibs then made amends by defending better and two counter punches from MarkA and Jumhal.

Blue Bibs 2 - 1 Mufti.

By the 20th minute it was clear that we had signed another quality striker as Justin ghosted in between a triangle of defenders to tuck the ball past MarkA. Apparently only strikers know how to do this, it is called sensing the right place to be. Anyway Blue Bibs 2 - 2 Mufti.

Guest Tumani who had hitherto been controlling the defence for the Mufti, then ghosted behind a line of Blue Bibs' defenders to receive the ball from BILZ96 and score past MarkA. In doing this he showed that sensing the right place to be is inherent in footballers in general not just strikers. With this in mind we will term it positional awareness rather than whatever the pundits tell us about the intuition of strikers. If you are watching at home go to YouTube 20:00 on the clock of of this match and watch two goals in a minute and learn about positional awareness.

Blue Bibs 2 - 3 Mufti.

MarkA then showed that, in theory, the only thing that needs to be positioned is the ball into the goal beyond the keeper's reach as he dinked the ball into the top corner from just over the halfway line. If we were writing the lexicon of football from scratch this would be called placing the ball.

Blue Bibs 3 - 3 Mufti.

Having digested MarkA's counter, Justin may be said to have shown that there is still another equally good attack. He positioned himself in free space, within a group of four Blue Bibs, then placed the ball past the keeper from distance. This was a combination of positional awareness and placing.

Blue Bibs 3 - 4 Mufti

Naz, who had been uncharacteristically quiet, announced his arrival at the party by driving down the Blue Bibs' left flank of attack and stroking the ball into the net from a respectable angle and distance.

Blue Bibs 4 - 4 Mufti

At 29:30 on the clock, after kicking two balls over, the club were reduced to having to consider playing with the dreaded frayed ball. Niyi protested like he was on Speakers Corner that the ball was dangerous. Even Naz said the ball was 'too [insert a word of your choice here] to play with'. Other players said it was OK. From his soap box Niyi spoke of health and safety and the risk to goal keepers of getting their eyeballs scratched. Outfield players insisted the game continue and Niyi conceded with dark mumblings about how no one cares and everyone hates goalkeepers.

Mini tantrum over the match recommenced with a frayed ball. The Blue Bibs seemed absolutely adamant that they would not learn the lessons of positional play. Ed took a spring vacation behind the whole of their defence and, but for marginally encroaching the edge of the area, should have been rewarded with his first goal of the evening. You may well ask why am I making so much about the matter of positional awareness. The answer is easy, the Mufti were playing against a team of Blue Bibs under the stewardship of Coach Hagenius. To catch a Hagenius team out of position once is possible, to do it twice well that is just plain unexpected but to do it three times, then that means the club could be going into special measures. It is like a Premier League team conceding five goals in 20 minutes or some other such abberation.

After 39 minutes with the match agonisingly poised at 4 - 4 and the next team at the gate the camera stopped filming. This meant the most contentious part of the evening is only in players' memories. The recollection is that Ed gave a back pass to his keeper and sprinted up the pitch. The keeper floated the ball to Ed who went on and scored the final goal of the game for the Mufti. JonF invoked the well known rule about back passes to keepers and insisted Ed's goal be ruled out as he had received a pass from the keeper after his own back pass to the keeper. Close examination of the rule reveals the following:

Goalkeeper unable to receive ‘pass backs’ unless the ball has been touched by an opponent or been touched by at least two of his team-mates.

A player who has received the ball from the goalkeeper cannot pass it straight back to that player. The ball must touch another player (which may be an opponent) before being passed back. Breach of this rule will result in an indirect free kick being awarded to the attacking team.

JonF's challenge is overruled and Ed's goal stands. This would prove the final goal of the night.

Match ball awarded to Justin for scoring a hat-trick on his debut. Tumani also joins the ranks of players who have scored on their first appearance at TWFC.

Final Score

Blue Bibs 4 - 5 Mufti

Match awarded to the Mufti.

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