TWFC

Accounts were relatively easy again this week, all established players paid £4.50 except Mark, Milo and Scott who are credited with £5 each (if anyone remembers different please let me know and I'll update the record)*. The subs coupled with £2 we found on the pitch made up the booking fee.

* Johnny also credited with £5 - update email from SC 23/1/2015.

Players
Orange Bibs

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AlMaher, Arik, Johnny, Nathan, Scott, Shain, Steve

Mufti

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Avvon, Danny, JonF, Mark, Milo, Niyi

This week we welcomed Alex (henceforth known as AlMaher), a uni mate of Danny and Anthony's, to the fixture.

Yay in these august footballing days did the mighty Tottenham Hotspur play Wednesday home matches two weeks in a row in the pursuit of gleaming silver trophies. Verily throngs of faithful to the Lane did converge from the four corners of the realm slowing down carriages in their wake. Look my ancient English is pants, you get the picture, players arrived late 'cos of the football traffic.

Four against four we kicked off and soon it was 1-0 then 1-1. Life is at times about the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’. For us Wednesday evenings distill down to an eternal battle between a group with orange bibs against a group without, each trying to kick an inflated bladder into a net. When Milo arrived, without permission he donned an orange bib and was unceremoniously told to take it off and join the ranks of those without a team colour. This led to a brief period of Mufti's having a numerical advantage. Pundits question why the Bibs rejected the mercurial talents of the majestic one? It will join other puzzles like why hasn't Holland won the World Cup, why is Steven Gerrard going to America and why do our eyes close when we sneeze?

After 15 minutes the Muftis led 4 -2 then the remaining players arrived resulting in the Bibs having seven players and the Mufti's six on the 5 - a side pitch.

The Bibs had the advantage of being able to leave two men in an advanced position while still maintaining a solid defence and midfield. The downside was the pitch size meant that there wasn't enough room to tire out their opponents. Finding that they could not necessarily go 'route one' the ever resourceful Scott and Johnny proved that footballers can thread a ball through the eye of a needle as they weighed in with goals from unexpected, nay unbelievable angles. To add petrol to things Arik was seen to hold up the ball on the wing and then leave three opposition players standing as he shimmied and quick stepped away from them. Alternating attackers in waves the Bibs switched between Johnny and Scott, Nathan and AlMaher and Shain and Arik all smashing at the Mufti's goal.

Despite this the Muftis were not to be undone. Milo was calmness personified as he gently relieved the opposition of the ball and fed it to JonF and Danny who were eager to score. The Bibs learned the hard way that the Muftis were not for turning. Soon it was 8 - 4 to the Muftis as JonF, Danny and Milo exploited the principles of ‘think big..’ to undo the opposition time after time.

At 9-5 to the Muftis with Steve in goal for the Bibs to expertly shore up their last line of defence it seemed that the threatened Bibs revival was imminent. But no one had told Mark and Avvon who kept running at the opposition in a sort of Matrix bullet time style where you get to weave round your attackers with camera frame rates slowed down. AlMaher marked his debut with a goal. Despite Nathan scoring and AlMaher moving on to a brace there was little Steve and all of his squad could do to stop the score advancing to 12 - 7 and then 14 - 9.

After about an hour and a quarter it was 15 - 10 to the Muftis when the next team began to arrive and we agreed our match would end as soon as they opened the gate. No one scored in the last goal finale .

Match awarded to the Muftis 15 -10

Things To Note

AlMaher joins the stellar cast of players who have scored a hat trick on their debut.

Milo is the only player to have played in all matches this calendar year and retain a 100% winning record.

Next week we are back at home playing at the Community Centre. Our two match hiatus away from home was a most invigorating experience. Who knows maybe an international fixture beckons...

http://cbdatabases.com/twfc/index.php?dt=28-01-2015&pg=fixtures