04/10/2009

With September and all it's crazy American national holiday fun but a distant, happy memory, October stepped in and forgot which side it's seasonal bread is buttered, squeezing another sunny day out of Summer to tease the Cashen masses out of bed. A short drive away, the lush grounds of the London Marathon Pitches are a welcome sight for any third division Sunday morning football team, or indeed any tunnel-visioned referee.

The normal stretches and warm ups ensued, followed by Wayne's late arrival. A man of his word, he duly administered and took his own medicine and dropped himself from the starting line up. Confirmation, if any was needed, that lateness will not be tolerated this season.

QPR are a strong, physical team who close their opposition down quickly, and Cashen’s kick off commenced a cup game in which QPR would be first to virtually every goal kick and throw in. The small pitch they play on suits their style as Cashen found space and time charged at a premium. Many a through ball by Cashen testified to this as each one would invariably reach the goalkeeper first or catch a striker offside in the battle to make up the difference. Of the few attacks that saw Tik or AJ legitimately breach QPR’s back four, a couple were scandalously given for offside, one was miscontrolled and kneed off for a goal kick by Tik and another ended when AJ slipped and fell at the critical moment in front of the keeper.

QPR drew first blood with a goal kick that was flicked on by a QPR head and the receiving striker with his back to goal and defence managed to turn and take a first time shot from 25 yards that looped fiercely over Hiwa and under the crossbar.

A second was added when a QPR striker was played in beyond the defence, neatly rounded Hiwa and tapped in his finish.

QPR continued to win most goal kicks and it seemed like every secondary ball was met by a QPR player to initiate a series of passing. Cashen, however were struggling to stitch more than a few passes together before being broken down.

Half time came and went and soon into the second half AJ and Ashley were replaced by Sean and JJ, Tik being moved out to the left wing. Before Ashley is consigned to the bench for the rest of this report, I should mention (at his request) that he did some kind of fabulous double flick over a couple of QPR midfielders, which I failed to see but Ash alerted me to the existence of down the pub. Bravo that man.

Whilst Cashen were still intent on throwing their throw-ins to the opposition, the opposition were cunningly throwing theirs to themselves. One long throw into Cashen’s box found a stooped QPR head to guide the ball into the net once more.

Cashen upped their game a little enabling John and Leon to distribute the ball to the wings more as per the manager’s wishes. Paris had been battling hard on the right all match and seemed to have packed some extra pace into his kit bag too. On a couple of occasions he simply burned up the wing to win some otherwise lost balls. It wasn’t until a run down the left wing by Tik who’d beaten his defender to cut a pass back to Sean who placed a well struck shot inside the near post that earned Cashen a consolation goal.

JJ was searching for more than just consolation and a twist here and a turn there manoeuvred him through the middle of the centre backs to put him in a shooting position but a last-ditch tackle denied him the opportunity.

QPR put the game to rest when another Cashen throw to the opposition resulted in a move down the left flank that would end in the ball nestled in the back of the Cashen net once more to make it 4-1 come the final whistle.

Overall, a disappointing performance from Cashen who were out battled, but by a good team who were undefeated in our division last year. I can only imagine such a result will fuel the Cashen spirit to make amends in this weekend’s league fixture against Kingsbury Ardent. Up the Cashen!!

Man of the Match: Tik (It should be known that when asked who was MOTM Wayne replied ‘Was there one? Errrrm….errrrrm…you can have it Tik’ – Get in, they all count!!!!