Report

After not playing for 3 weeks due to the cold and snow, County should have re done their pre-season training as most of the team were struggling to get into the kit, luckily Brooksey wasn’t playing or we may have had to stitch 2 tops together.

We were away against Westmill who were looking for their first win of the season and were probably going to get it as we were struggling for players again, can’t wait for the sun to come out so we can get back to having 14 or 15 players every week, anyway enough about the fair weather fairies.

As mentioned Brooksey was missing and has not been since scoring at Liz Allen back in December, maybe he has decided to retire on a high.  Barry was sunning himself in Tenerife, make sure those sunglasses are dark enough so you don’t get caught perving, Ben was probably away on another lads weekend or struggling with the lack of sleep from having 2 kids, Steve Martin had gone to Brighton on a lashup, I think he was visiting a few of those special bars for special boys.  Adie was still injured but he braved the weather to come and watch as did Lee who was wishing he was Steve in Brighton.

So the team was Mikey in goal, Darren Willson right back, Fluff left back with Neil and Darren White in the middle.  Pag was right midfield with Steve J on the left with Alan and anno in the middle, with Kofi Crooks and Evitt up front, no subs and no linesman as the boys didn’t want to run the line, Lee’s excuse was he didn’t want to get his Timberlands dirty, didn’t want to get his boots dirty which are made for walking in mud, it’s like having a plane and saying you don’t want it to go in the air!!

So with a re shuffled team we kicked off on a very heavy pitch with a very heavy team.  Westmill started the better and created a few good chances; we were struggling to contain them and were chasing shadows.  We did try and play our passing game but the pitch wasn’t helping.  There was a great comedy moment in the first half where Darren Willson did 3 foul throws on the spin, are there any 12 year olds around who could teach him??

25 mins in, Fluffy who was in one of his Mr Angry moods decided to thrown a Westmill player to the floor in the box, he had hold off his arm, gave it a big tug, gave it a 2^nd bigger tug and then went for a 3^rd where he pushed him to the floor, penalty given and not much argument from anyone on our team, including Fluff.

The player stepped up and slotted low and Mikey dived full stretch and pulled off a great save.  Westmill continued to pressure but were being kept out by the County defence, 0-0 half time.

Darren not really happy with the first half performance but it was a difficult pitch and we had to keep plugging away.

The 2^nd half was much the same, a very even game with some heavy challenges by both sides.  Fluffy was getting more wound up and got booked for arguing with the ref who was making some ridiculous decisions, Darren was happy to join in berating the ref when he turned round and said ‘if you keep on you will get no decisions’, after we pointed out that is a form of cheating he stormed off, even the Westmill players said we should report him for that.

The game then descended into chaos  with the ref giving nothing, offside decisions, fouls and even throw ins were not given even when the opposition had stopped if the ball was out of play or in one case the player put his hands in the air to apologise for a foul which the ref didn’t give!

We then went 1-0 down, Darren and Manno went for the same ball in the middle of the park, they both missed it, Westmill played the ball over the top and the player ran through and scored, 0-1.

We then started to play a bit better whilst still not getting any decisions, but we scored a great team goal, the ball was played out wide and Darren hit a perfect cross to Manno who volleyed home at the back post, 1-1.

With 10 mins left we had the chance to win it, Manno broke down the right and squared a great ball to Stevie J on the left who had an open goal from 8 yards, but he went for a girly side foot over power and the ball rolled into the keepers arms, I don’t think it actually had enough power to cross the line anyway, shocking and a deffo £1 fine.

Within 2 mins Westmill were ahead, the ball was played out wide, Fluffy had it covered but I think he slowed down to let the Westmill player get closer so he could take him out, he did neither and the player ran in on goal and squared to the striker who knocked it in off his shin from 5 yards, 2-1.

Westmill scored a further 2 goals in the last 5 mins including a great shot from 25 yards which Mikey had no chance with, 1-4 final score.

The ref was shocking today but we let him get to us and we spent more energy arguing and moaning than playing, we had a great chance to win the game but for the miss of the season and we imploded in the final 8 minutes, well done to Westmill for their first win of the season, was there ever going to be any other result!!