Teams
Cybury: Ingles, Simmons, Fullman, Docherty, Vince, Dickson,
Williams, Rose, Melis, Brownjohn, Roberts
Subs: Shulman (Dickson 30), Powell (Doherty 30), then various
permutations
BALA: Dunno, though apparently they included 3 or 4 Gooners as well.
Result : BALA (3) 3 Cybury Gooners (4) 7
Scorers: ? 32, ? 35, ? 42 Roberts 8,17, Fullman 25,
Brownjohn 38, Shulman 55,75
Williams 80
Bookings: None
Att : 4 (girlfriends/wives, father, etc)
Referee : Shulman/Dickson/nobody
An unseasonally warm day contributed to an extremely knackering game,
which was nonetheless successful, as Cybury extended their unbeaten run
to 3 games. BALA's tactic of telling the Gooners kick off was at 10.15
but not turning up themselves until 11, thus ensuring that our hour long
warm up completely shagged some of us out, was partially successful but
didn't affect the final result.
The Cybury lineup was not as advertised due to the no-show of our keeper and rightback/manager King. Chris Ingles took over in nets, and Mark Simmons filled the vacancy at right back while Julian Shulman ran about pretending to referee.
A quick break in the first couple of minutes almost gave the Gooners a perfect start. Brownjohn burst through down the middle, but having knackered himself with the 40 yard run, and on his weak side, chose not to go for goal and tried to play it inside to Dickson. And messed it up.
Fortunately it didn't matter too much because not long afterwards, Gary Roberts cracked in a shot from the edge of the box which the keeper could only palm into the net. With the new central defensive partnership of Tony Fullman and Mike Docherty looking very solid, at the other end Bala were restricted to only glimpses of half chances.
With the Bala defence unsettled, a blunder at the back then presented Roberts with his second goal. He hassled a defender into giving the ball away on the edge of the area, and took it on to blast it through the keeper's hands and into the net. This caused Bala to change keepers.
Meanwhile, the central midfield duo of Mark Williams and Adam Rose drove Cybury forward in waves, ably supported on the wings by Simon Dickson and Mel Melis. The pressure soon paid off as a Dickson corner on the right was planted right onto the forehead of Fullman and the ball crashed into the net.
After half an hour, Dickson took over the refereeing duties and Shulman replaced him on the right side of midfield, while Matt Powell took over from Doherty in the centre of defence. This all seemed to temporarily throw the Cybury team, and Bala quickly took advantage with two goals on the break. One was suspiciously offside, but by his own admission, the ref was unsighted (for anything beyond 5 yards) and the goal stood.
Meanwhile Cybury were still making chances, and missing them, with great regularity. Brownjohn managed to head a superb cross from Dickson over the bar from about 2 yards, then shot too close to the keeper when well placed soon afterwards. Shulman was also guilty of a miss, scuffing a shot wide from 8 yards.
However, refereeing incompetence levelled out when Brownjohn restored a two goal cushion following a bit of a goal mouth scramble after a long throw. The ball hit his hand before he lashed it into the net from 2 yards, but with the ref again unsighted the goal stood. The ref's blind spot apparently included his wrist because the final 15 minutes appeared to stretch to at least 25, and this allowed Bala once again to snatch a goal on the break. Ingles made a superb and brave save at the feet of the forward before the ball ricocheted unkindly and allowed the opposition a simple tap in.
The second half was pretty much completely dominated by the boys in red. Several reshuffles at various times in the half saw Dickson replace Simmons at right back, Powell replace Ingles in goal, Shulman and Brownjohn swap positions, and Ingles replace Roberts up front.
Big Julian it was who made things safe for the Gooners with a couple of clinical finishes early and midway through the half. First he turned on a loose ball in the area to sweep it home with his right foot, then defeated the keeper from the edge of the area with a left foot shot that surprised the temporary standin Simmons (no hint of letting the ball through his fingers there).
Bala meanwhile really only threatened once with a speculative long range shot which hit the bar. With tiredness creeping in, particularly to one old pair of legs (I've never been quite as knackered before), the Gooners had to be satisfied with adding just one more goal, though it was a beauty. Dickson swung in a peach of a cross from the right which dropped over the defender's head to leave Williams with only the keeper to beat. This he did with a consumate ease, volleying home a lob from about 15 yards.
All in all a pretty solid all round performance from Cybury, all the more heartening because we were missing three of our best players. Debutant Keith Vince had a stormer at left back while Docherty and Fullman were commanding in the middle. The central midfield pairing of Rose and Williams ran the show, while wide men Dickson and Melis bombed forward to great effect. Up front Roberts' class shone through while Shulman showed Brownjohn how to finish. I blame the party on Saturday night myself.
Report by Derek Brownjohn
The mighty Reds' unbeaten run continued on a surprisingly hot Sunday morning by the Thames, with a convincing 7-3 victory over BALA FC of south London. The gap in class was evident from the off, and we could almost feel a bit let down by the scoreline, given the amount of pressure we had, and the total lack of penetration from the BALA boys for most of the 1st and all of the 2nd half.
A few missing regulars forced a change in the lineup, with Mike Doherty moving into the centre of defence to partner Big Tony (not Adams - but he played like it!), leaving the left back slot to Keith Vince who made his full Cybury debut. With the failure of Mark King to come back from holiday for the game (slacker) the right back slot was initially filled by Mark Simmons, with Simon Dickson dropping back in the second half. The familiar Melis - Rose - Williams - Dickson line across the middle was in place for the first half, with Gary and Derek up front. The lofty Powell and Shulman started on the bench (well, there wasn't a bench as such...), but saw plenty of activity later in the game.
The first thing to strike us was the heat: 23'C, in mid-October was quite unbearable. The ground was rock-hard too, and my first contribution finished up with a spectacular slip on the dew and a triple somersault. The defence needed a little time to pull together, but the midfield and attack had played together on previous occasions and were instantly as one. Gary Roberts opened the scoring with a delightful effort from outside the area, and the pattern was set. Gary got his second shortly after, and seemed destined to get a hat-trick, but it wasn't to be.
Goal number three came direct from a corner, in classic Arsenal style: Simon took a corner long towards the far post, and Tony came crashing in on it to give the keeper no chance. Our fourth goal of the half came from a bit of a goalmouth scramble during which Derek admits the ball hit his hand, but the referee was blind (literally) and saw nothing wrong.
The halftime score was 4-3, with BALA flattering to deceive. Two goals were conceded on the break, one of which was undoubtedly offside, but again the ref couldn't see. The third was desperately unlucky for keeper Chris Ingles, who came out to stop the initial shot brilliantly, only to see it fall back to the feet of the same bloke.
The second half saw us take complete charge, with only one BALA attack ever coming close. With Simon dropping back, Derek filled the gap in midfield, and left Dr Shulman to partner Gary up front. Matt took over as keeper, with Chris taking a break before coming back on in place of Gary. But it was Julian Shulman who stunned us with two pieces of clinical finishing, one from each foot. Not unlike a certain Dutchman, Julian's had trouble finding the openings in the first couple of games, but this time he found them and took full advantage. Twice. Between these came a splendid finish by Mark Williams from something of an inspired route-one ball from Simon.
And so we racked up 7 in one game. To be fair I was pretty sure we'd hammer the opposition, but the performances from one and all were excellent. Mark & Mel are going to have big problems with team selections: for example, we have FOUR centre halves who have played wonderfully, and unless we go ultra-defensive, we can only play two of 'em at once. Which two? Beats me... The Derek / Gary partnership at the front proved inspirational again, and Mark & Adam seemed to be absolutely everywhere on the pitch at various times. Keith & Mel linked up well on the left side, but I feel we missed Mark King as our regular right-back and moaner. The goals came from all angles and distances, and we should perhaps have got more than the 7. But it's silly to get negative about such an all-round excellent showing.
No idea who to call man-of-the-match. Mike Doherty seemed to get his head to everything that crossed the half-way line, and Keith managed to take the BALA danger man totally out of it. It's impossible to fault Mark or Adam in the middle... so we should all probably share the praise for once. A word of sympathy for BALA's Jem Vine, the unfortunate midfielder who took a fierce strike right where it counts, and was left writhing on the ground for at least a couple of minutes. Mind you, he did get back up and finish the game - commendable!!!
Bring on the next victims!
Report by Simon "blind as a bat" Dickson
BALA FC 3 (3) CYBURY GOONERS 7 (4)
??? G. Roberts 2
T. Fullman
D. Brownjohn
J. Shulman 2
M. Williams
CYBURY : C.Ingles (M. Powell H/T), M.Simmons (S.Dickson H/T),
K. Vince (M. Simmons 80), T. Fullman, M. Doherty
(M. Powell 30 (M. Doherty H/T)), S. Dickson (J. Shulman 30),
A. Rose, M. Williams, M. Melis, D. Brownjohn, G. Roberts
(C. Ingles 60).
A convincing win for Cybury, but I reckon we should have got more
goals!
It was a warm day in Chiswick, the early morning dew had long gone, the pitch was hardening fast, players were frantically changing their studs :). The turds were slowly meandering their way down the Thames, making progress to the sea where they would be ingested by some hapless wind-surfer in Essex (good!).
The Cybury boys were early, the beaurocrats of the Foreign office kept us waiting till 11am. They eventually trundled onto the pitch, looking weird and wonderful in their various shapes and sizes. I studied their defenders as they lined up. "Yessssssss" I thought, an old man, a Timmy Mallett lookalike, some slow burly Asian bloke and what looked like an albino accountant, complete with gold rimmed specs. The asain bloke and the accountant turned out to be quite useful though.
As Mark King wasn't around, I was picking the team. As I have a complex, I dropped Julian and Matt for being too tall, and gave precedence to people who struggle around the 5'7" mark. Thus, six of the starting line-up (you know who you are) were small geezers.
Cybury started brightly, we eventually opened the scoring with a speculative long range effort from Gary Roberts. This proved Simon correct in his prediction that 'goalie' was Balas' problem position.
A few minutes later Gary scored again, an opportunist goal after some naff defending from the Bala boys. Midway through the half came the third, a Dickson corner met powerfully by the towering Fullman, his header crashing into the net. Fullman and Doherty partnered well in defence, making some real bone-shuddering tackles and winning everything in the air.
After half an hour Julian came on for Simon and Matt came on for Mike Doherty. Unfortunatley, we let in some soft goals, one of which was definatley offside, but not only was the ref (Simon) completely blind, but also he was standing on the other side of the pitch. Our first half goalie Chris Ingles, played a stormer, he encouraged, shouted and made some excellent stops, but the Cybury outfield players must take the blame for allowing Bala three clear cut openings in the first half (which they finished well).
Before Bala got their third, the unlucky Derek Brownjohn managed to get on the scoresheet, with a debatable strike that hit his hand first. 'Deadly' Derek did everything right apart from finish the chances he would make for himself. He ran off the ball well, linked with Gary beautifully (what a partnership!), but in front of goal he suffered with a case of the "SooperKevs". Never mind Del, you still had a cracking game. His goal made it 4-2. Just before half time, Bala (who were causing us some problems) scored another. We were glad of the break, but also confident we would trounce them in the second half.
We were slow to start in the second half, Julian played up front and Derek switched to the right wing. Derek mullered the left back (Timmy Mallett) again and again, and Julian had his best game for Cybury, using his height and body to steer out chances. He also drifted across the line well and caused confusion in the Bala defence. Eventually, we broke through, Julian twisting round and sliding in a shot from the edge of the six yard box.
Gary Roberts was now puffing and panting, having played a game on the Saturday. Also, I lent him a heavy top and by this stage he had lost two stone, so the thin Gary Roberts left the field to warm applause and Chris Ingles came on to play as a striker.
Simon was having a great game at right back, not that he was playing right back as he kept on charging up the wing and placing useful crosses into the danger area. Left back Keith Vince had a brilliant debut and kept Balas tricky winger very quiet. As for yours truly, someone said I was 'storming' down the wing, perhaps 'gently drizzled' down the wing would have been more apt. A few tackles, some nice passes (apart from the hospital ball which led to Keith being injured) and lots of running, but nothing exiting really. Our second half keeper was only tested once, Matt managing to palm a long shot onto the bar, thus keeping a clean sheet.
Soon after Gary was subbed, Mark Simmons suddenly appeared in goal for the opposition, and he ducked and waved at a shot from Julian which dipped into the net. The apparition soon disappeared though as BALA replaced him.
As BALA were tiring fast, our central midfield pairing dominated more and more. Mark Williams and Adam Rose really ran the show (from the kick-off), eventually Mark was rewarded with a quality goal, recieving a ball on the edge of the area, a couple of touches and then a deft lob into the net over their sprawling keeper. The man of the match award has to go between one of these two, and as Mark Williams is too tall to be even considered, is has to go to Adam Rose.
Report by Mel "shortarse" Melis