27/09/2009

There are many people who have been waiting excitedly for today to come. Some may have woken early, unable to sleep from the expectation. Some may well have drunk themselves into a coma the night before to fend off any such possibility and slept right through their alarm (tut tut Johnny). Others may have just marked the occasion on their calendar and were merely filled with a pleasant sense of wellbeing, and I for one was one of them, because yes it finally arrived, today is ‘National Crush A Can Day’ Woohoo!!! At least, it is in America. Us poor beings in the UK have no such day where we can crush cans and feel good about it so we had to settle instead for the first competitive fixture of the Cashen season.

A Cashen team filed into the glorious sunshine, clothed by the old fashioned method of lobbing a hand grenade into the middle of three football kits and seeing what was left, and went through the usual stretches and warm ups. The whistle blew and on the back of a successful pre-season, Cashen pushed forth. From the off Cashen were creating the better chances. The ball was being worked into the box but there always seemed to be an army of Highgate players in there too making it difficult to get a definite shot off. This continued for about fifteen minutes until some pinballing in the box finally released a looping ball to AJ on the edge who took the ball calmly on his chest and volleyed it inside the right hand upright. He's right you know, give him the ball he'll score.

Ten minutes later, and that man AJ again had the ball deep in the Cashen half and with a nifty change of direction opened up the right side of the pitch with a long pass to Ashley who steamed into the box and unselfishly elected to pass to JJ who was shouting for a square ball, rather than shoot, but choice can be a damn nuisance sometimes and the delivery ended up somewhere in-between and went off for a goal kick.

Another attack on the Highgate goal saw JJ hit the ball into the ground to create a bouncing cross across the six yard box that Tik ran onto and scored his first ever competitive header, only to have it taken away so cruelly by an offside decision by the referee.

Around about this point, the Highgate keeper had to come off due to a broken collarbone induced by a 50/50 challenge with JJ earlier on in the game. I'll bet he wishes he'd stayed at home to crush cans instead.

Half time came and went, the conclusion of which was that Cashen had done well but really should be doing better. Highgate obviously changed their tactics in the interlude as they came out a better team and were stringing more passes together leading to their best opportunity of the game when their striker was played through the middle and beyond the Cashen back four only to be run down by Blakey who was adjudicated to have fouled him right on the edge of the box. Just as Hiwa was telling

the wall that he couldn't see, a well taken free kick was destined to curl just inside the Cashen post had it not been for SuperHiwa flying to the rescue. Give that man a cape.

The game continued and Cashen regained control with Leon's persistence in the middle of the park and Wayne and Chris playing a composed game at the back supported by solid performances from Jason and Chabs who had to play through repeated attempts by Highgate to unleash the hulk in Chabs, but his eyes only flashed green for a second when others might have succumbed altogether.

JJ, content with having broken the land speed record a dozen times over in one morning came off for John, and Chabs made way to Paris. A reshuffle later on would see Ashley and Paris swap wings after Ashley had had enough of being kicked about and possibly earned a yellow card after some choice words on the matter.

Cashen bought some breathing space after Blakey launched a throw-in down the wing which was flicked on by AJ for Tik to just poke the ball beyond the last defender and slot the ball across the keeper to make it 2-0.

Further forays against the Highgate saw a deft flick from JohnnyB set Sean up for a thump from outside the box only to warm the sky above the crossbar.

Sturdy work down the wing by Paris gave Ashley a chance to run at the 18 yard box and unleash a shot that hit the cross bar, bounce down and back out. Some say it crossed the line, others say it didn't. Surely in this day and age we should have goal line technology at JFS. Failing that, warm showers would be a start. But then I'm sure it hadn't escaped anyone's attention that today is also the start of Yom Kippur so flipping the boiler switch would have been a misdeed against the Sabbath. I digress.

A third goal was disallowed against the mighty Cashen when a cross from Ashley found Blakey at the far post whose header into the back of the net was given as off side again.

The final whistle confirmed Cashen's first win of the season. Only small margins denied Cashen a five nil romp and even then the hat promised more. Pre-season results had after all seen better results against proven teams. Perhaps then, a tweak here and a summer cobweb shaken off there will see Cashen fully come into their own.

Man of the Match: AJ