21/02/2010

Picture the scene. Saturday afternoon and the sun is shining. The pitches around Harrow and Brent are drying out and if it stays like this, the surface should be pretty conducive to good football tomorrow. Off to Dave Gorman at the Hammersmith Apollo in the evening and then on the way home, heavy sleet. All during the night, heavy sleet. In the morning, the sleet lets up and rain takes over. Standing water on the roads out of Watford southwards doesn’t bode well and at JFS, seagulls have taken up residency on the home pitch, doing a couple of lengths of backstroke, which is never a good sign.

The first hour at our fortress on the Mall is spent inspecting pitches, having deep conversations in the changing room, inspecting pitches, persuading a referee to let the game go ahead, inspecting pitches, leaning on groundsmen to let us play on another pitch and finally, five minutes after we are due to kick off. Game on!

The junior pitch is commandeered and the Mulston Cup semi final will take place on a patch of grass that is short enough for goalkeepers to be tempted to go for goal straight from their kicking and narrow enough for everyone to feel like Rory Delap at throw-ins. Regardless of the result, Cashen Rovers were going to have a team in the final of a cup competition for the first time in the club’s eight years of existence. The B’s showed six changes to the team that were narrowly beaten by The Bodhran a forthnight ago whilst Wayne stuck with the same eleven that started the important win against Highgate last week, with the exception of Tik who was unavailable.

The hope was that the teams would put on a display for the assembled masses on the sidelines. Performance fell far short of expectation.

A huge swathe of mud down the centre of the island didn’t help. Neither did both teams’ insistence of trying to play their way through it in the first half leading to a scrappy affair where the ball was constantly sticking up. The A’s had a lot of possession and pressure in the first twenty minutes or so but couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net. Shots were cleared off the line and off the post and a number of long range efforts whistled just over Staunton’s bar. Surely it was just a matter of time until there was a goal.

It was just a matter of time but it came at the other end and had good comedy value to boot. Kyle, who was sweeping up and facing towards goal, elected to roll the ball some twenty yards to Rob. The ball had other ideas as it stopped after five yards in the brown stuff and left Mike with a straightforward shot from twenty five yards out at an open goal. This gave the B’s belief and for the next ten minutes they were much the better side as they attacked down the flank time after time. Aleks couldn’t get the ball out of his feet when he went clean through and Rob snuffed out the danger and were it not for an athletic save from the A’s custodian to repel a long range effort, the B’s would have been two up and cruising.

As it was, this escape geed up the A’s who finished the half stronger and got two goals to boot. One was a great through ball by JJ which Shoresh latched onto and dispatched with style despite protestations off offside. The other was a flicked header from Shoresh that sent JJ on his way and he outmuscled Hiwa to round Staunton and sweep it home from a tight angle.

2-1 at half time and the final was still within grasp for both sides. The B’s grasped the nettle at the start of the second half and got the equaliser when Aleks played in Mike who suddenly had loads of space and made no mistake with his finish. The A’s reacted swiftly to try and regain the lead. John Bowden placed a powerful header wide from a PR cross and another rib-tickling stuck in the mud moment happened when Shoresh miscued from three and half inches out with the goal at his mercy.

The A’s pressure eventually paid off when Ashley, who had come on for Alex, sent over a great corner that JJ met with a good touch and after the ball was repelled from the goal, Shoresh looped over a header that had crossed the line before it was kicked out again.

The pitch was taking its toll on a number of players all of the remaining substitutions were made pretty soon after. Both teams added one more goal to the scoreline within minutes of each other. At one end, Ashley lifted the ball out of the mud for JJ to run onto and lash it home and at the other, Kayode’s persistence paid off when he was first to react to his own saved shot and managed to nuts Rob on his goal line at the second time of asking.

Staunton made a couple of outstanding saves to prevent the A's going further ahead and this set up a nervy last ten minutes where the fans were praying it wouldn’t go to extra time with the amount of mistakes being made on the mud by both sides and the threat of more rain rendering the art of spectating more like a feat of endurance. Their patience was rewarded however in the dying minutes with what was easily the goal of the game. A deep corner from Ashley was volleyed home like a rocket off JJ’s boot from around ten yards out. Game over!

The venue for the final is not as yet known but will definitely be at a half decent local non-league ground and against the Bodhran who squeezed past Kingsbury Ardent 3-2 in today’s other semi-final. In the meantime, both Cashen teams can concentrate on their championship and promotion pushes.