ALS vs Cybury Gooners Wed 5th June 1996
at Gosling Sports Park, Welwyn Garden City
Teams
Gooners: Ingles (Shulman 50), King, Cook, Fullman, Vince, Adebowale,
Rose (McNaught h-t), Kerry, Melis, Williams (Dickson 73),
Watkins
ALS: ?
Result : ALS (0) 1 Cybury Gooners (2) 8
Scorers: ? 46 Kerry 5,50,70,75, Rose 39
Adebowale 65,80, McNaught 78
Attendance: 2
Referee : consensus
A welcome return to goal scoring form by the Cybury Gooners, against an admittedly weakened ALS side, featured a storming performance by rising midfield star Mark Kerry which was capped by a first ever Cybury hattrick. With Mark 'goonah' Williams continuing his long haul back to fitness in a Bergkamp role, and midfield maestro 'big Al' Adebowale holding things together in the middle of the park, the Gooners established a firm grip on the game which ALS only rarely threatened to disrupt. Melis and Rose made up the numbers in the wide midfield positions.
New boy Neil Cook forged a strong partnership in the middle of defence with old boy Fullman which, with old lad King and young boy Vince at fullback, formed a near impregnable defensive screen in front of old man Ingles. Up front, almost new boy Barry Watkins foraged tirelessly, causing the ALS defence (and frequently his colleagues) all manner of problems with his head-down close control and mazy dribbling.
This observer arrived late and thus missed the Gooners' first goal, apparently a cleverly looped header by Kerry which cleared the keeper. The remainder of the first half (40 minutes were played each way because of the time constraints) for the most part featured Cybury dominance but singular failure to turn possession into goals. This was perhaps in part due to a big blonde Dane (actually I think he was Dutch but that spoils the joke) blocking the paths his other peers couldn't reach in the middle of the ALS defence.
Eventually though, just before half time the Gooners did break through. Watkins picked up posession wide on the left, and crossed for Rose, who beat the retreating defender to the ball, controlled it first time with his chest, went past the keeper and slid the the ball into the empty net.
At half time the man with the thighs was rewarded by being substituted in order to give the King Melis axis a chance to look at new girl Duncan McNaught. If he'd only called himself Mark he might have started the match, but anyway to allow McNaught to partner Watkins up front, Williams moved back into midfield.
Straight from the restart Cybury suffered their traditional lapse in concentration and ALS pulled a goal back. A scorching run down the right by one of the ALS midfielders resulted in a well dug out cross from the byline which keeper Inspector Chris Ingles should probably have cut out. However, by his own admission, he wasn't expecting the cross to come over and could only push the ball out to the feet of one of the inrushing ALS forwards who had the simple job of knocking it into the net.
Thereafter ALS were given little chance of mounting a comeback. Five minutes later Kerry had bagged his second. A complex run down the left by Watkins set up the chance for the dynamic midfielder and he cracked home a drive from 15 yards which the keeper could only stand and watch.
The goals now began to arrive with some regularity. Adebowale drove home his first following a good move down the right involving King and Williams. Soon afterwards Kerry completed his hattrick with another piledriver from the edge of the area which was so well hit it went straight through the keeper. To be charitable the deepening gloom probably had something to do with it - it is easier to make saves when you can see the ball. Melis had forgotten to feed the meter but Rose eventually trotted off to the rescue and managed to get the lights switched on so the game was able to continue at a less farcical level.
At the other end Cybury guardian, the follically challenged Ingles had been replaced in nets by the follically abused Shulman. His bright red thatch did the business though as he subsequently made a couple of suberb stops late in the game as ALS desperately pressed for another consolation goal.
Meanwhile Williams was starting to feel the effects of his long lay off and was replaced by mad old dog Dickson who proceeded to put in some storming runs down the right, and generally raised the level (decibel wise) of the game. Indeed he soon afterwards contributed towards Cybury's 6th goal, feeding Adebowale as he made a run into the area. Big A jinked and twisted one/two/three defenders before laying the ball back to Kerry on the edge of the area, and the hattrick hero grabbed his fourth with another crashing drive.
With ALS visibly demoralised the Gooners were able to add another couple in the closing minutes. Captain Zorro was determined to take advantage and continually raged forward from fullback. One long range effort narrowly missed the corner flag before he finally got one on target. Reasonably well hit it was nonetheless straight at the keeper, but he obligingly spilled the ball and McNaught was able to stab the rebound home and open his account for the Gooners.
Right on the final whistle another meandering run down the left by the tricky Watkins resulted in McNaught being set up with the chance to double his account. However he hit it straight at the keeper and it was Adebowale who snapped up the rebound to complete the scoring with the last kick of the match. Report by Derek Brownjohn