15/11/2009

The B's ventured back over to Mill Hill (when are our home games???) for a league game against The Bodhran. With the first choice midfield partnership of Ezra and Darren unavailable due to injury, Kyle kept his place and was joined by John who was looking to impress at a higher level than he is used to. JJ also made the trip but had to settle for a place on the bench, as the gaffer kept faith with a front pairing that had claimed 7 goals in the last 3 games. Henry took one for the team by agreeing to go in goal because Staunts was out on the lash, and Guy finally got his place back in the defense.

Cashen had an immediate advantage, when it became clear that the Bodhran only had 10 players, but then lost that advantage when they realized it was the same referee from the derby game of last week.

First job of the day, was to clear the pitch of leaves, as the ref refused to kick off until he was happy with the state of the playing surface, both teams worked together to get the job done, and finally the official allowed us to crack on.

Cashen kicked off with a real sense of purpose determined to make sure that this week, we were also going to get the result as well as the performance. Kyle and John linked up well in midfield, and were doing their best to get the ball down the wings to Brocky and Kayode as much as possible in an effort to stretch the numerically disadvantaged Bodhran. This ploy worked perfectly when Kayode managed to break free and feed the ball through to Paris, who celebrated his last game for the club, by rounding the keeper and slotting the ball home to give an immediate advantage to Rovers.

The lead was doubled shortly after when a corner wasn't cleared, Kyle hit the bar, and then the keeper managed to fumble the ball into his own net, this was not going to be the last comedy moment of the game. 2-0 up and cruising, Cashen were in complete control of the game, isn’t this where we normally start to make things difficult for ourselves???

.....yes it is. All of the Bodhran play was coming down the wing on the right hand side, possibly to do with the fact that they were playing without a left one. With Cashen being so on top, as a team we were pushing more and more forward, which meant that when Bodhran broke, and delivered a great cross from the right, there were insufficient defenders to cope, and the big forward confidently nodded his side back in to the game.

Time for comedy moment number 2. In last week’s derby, the referee gave 2 suspect penalties, 1 of which was not even shouted for. So it was no real surprise when he awarded the home side a gift of a penalty, claiming that 3 defenders had fouled the same forward, strange that this forward who was so wronged didn’t even mention this, and it was actually Henry who ended up on the floor, but hey you couldn’t argue with the penalty itself, which was expertly struck in to the corner to even things up at 2-2. As Alan Hansen would say....Unbelievable!!

Cashen dusted themselves off, and vowed to regain their lead, and nearly did, when Kayode lept for a ball, and nodded home, only to have the goal chalked off for a foul on the keeper. This referee doesnt like shouts of leave it, and this time Cashen benefited from it, though they didnt manage to score from the resultant indirect free kick.

Aleks has done a good job of replacing Shoresh up front, and to celebrate this, decided to go on an Afsajiesque run skipping past 2 players on the by-line before having a shot from a narrow angle, unlike the Finn, he didn’t score but the shot did deflect of a defender for a corner. The resultant corner caused a goal mouth melee that eventually dropped to JB who calmly struck the ball home to retake the lead for Cashen.

At half time, Darren resisted the temptation to make changes, and the plan for the second half was very much to get at Bodhran as much as possible. With the opposition starting to tire due to their one man disadvantage and this allowed Cashen to really put some pressure on. JJ replaced Brocky on the wing, and was keen to get at the Bodhran right back as much as possible, and it was from here that Rovers fourth goal came. Guy launched a long throw (boy that training worked!) over Aleks and in to the path of JJ who skipped past a defender before crossing for John to claim his second of the game. It was nearly 5 minutes later when another cross to John was expertly put in, only for the goal to be correctly chalked off for offside.

Rovers were now dominating, and everyone was having shots at goal, most of them going either wide or over. A fifth goal did arrive, when Paris was fouled in the box, the culmination of the penalty miss of last week, and JB being on a hat-trick meant that the gaffer handed the ball to John, much to the disgust of Paris. JB didn’t complain though, and promptly bagged the match ball with a great strike.

There was still time for more action, though with Cashen driving forward down both wings. JJ got a 6th goal, though I can’t actually remember how it came about, as it is now 2 weeks later that I finally get around to writing this, I am sure it was great and probably came about from some really silky skills from the left back who then delivered the ball to JJ so he couldn’t miss.....probably.

With the game done and dusted it was time for some more comedy, when Hiwa and Henry both decided not to clear a through ball, both thinking that the other would do it. This allowed the Bodhran striker to sneak in and get a consolation goal, to make the score line look a little more respectable.

Final score 6-3, bringing the B's up in to mid table obscurity. This was a great performance from the boys in yellow and black, and no more than they deserved.

Man of the Match: It’s hard to argue with a 3 goal haul, so congratulations Mr. Bowden.