I knew that eventually my penchant for dishing out a bit of abuse on this blog was going to land me in the shit. Readers of my last post may remember my reference to the Referee for the Maccabi game which was, shall we say, a little unkind....
No-one thought to tell me that this particular Ref was in fact a bit of a Latymer legend with over forty five years of service to the club and who was of course a former club Captain and honoury Life-President. I also wasn't aware that he was in-fact on the email distribution list so when I sent out my usual brief alert that the post was available to read, he of course had full view of my over-the-top description!
Steve Last, our man in question, thankfully saw the funny side of it all but I was extremely embarrassed to say the least and rather sheepishly offered a wave of apologies when I saw him for our next game which he was again referee for. Steve laughed it all off again and it says an awful lot about the man with his ability to be so forgiving. But once again for the record- my sincere apologies.
We were rather hoping to build on our 1-1 draw from the last match and an away tie in Greenford to Atlas Vets, we felt, might just bring us our first win of the season.
Indeed, we have discovered the ability to be much more disciplined in our play and hold two banks of four in a much more organised and professional manner but this time round it seemed that lady luck wasn't on our side as we went down 2-1.
Codz was back this week to partner Scottish John in the heart of the defence with Mark in his usual left-back slot and Marcello on the right. We started with Nipper down left midfield and Dino on the right with Jonesy and Paul in the engine room. Sully again partnered Matt up top, while Lev and Adam on the bench this time. Sadly, Nipper lasted only five minutes before limping off with what I think was a pulled hammy so Lev was employed as an emergency left winger! Marcello also experienced a bit of a niggle of sorts so took an early rest with Adam slotting in at the back - good for me because he's my goal-kick merchant!
Atlas started quite brightly and it was evident that they were very much a passing team. They perhaps over-did it a bit but they moved well for each other and popped the ball out wide in an effort to get any cross over. I felt our boys coped pretty well and were really good at staying on their feet and not diving in, getting pulled out of position.
I didn't have an awful lot to do in the opening quarter of the game and bit by bit Latymer began to take control of the game.
We enjoyed a flurry of encounters on their goal which led to a string of corners that certainly caused them a few problems. Codz was getting himself into the fray in their box as much as possible from these corners and only narrowly slammed the ball over from one half chance. Our own passing and moving was really good and Jonesy was asking his usual questions with through balls for Matt and down the right wing for Dino. I think Sully was gutted at the end of the game because he had some really good chances to score, one the Keeper did really well to stop, another that he curled inches wide with the outside of his left peg and yet another that was a little back-heel on goal from a shot from Jonesy.
My own little adventures as the half wore on included a decent but expected stop as one of their lads fired on goal after the ball was scrambled clear from their corner. It was straight at me but I did see it late as it came through a crowd so a double-fisted block was enough to send it clear of danger. There was also a one-on-one as their attacker came clean through. Closing the angle quickly was enough to force an early shot that flew wide and over.
Then the sucker-punch. We failed to stop a cross coming over from their right winger and it sailed beyond me onto the head of an incoming striker to nod home from six yards. A few of us threw our toys out of our prams but thankfully it only took a minute for us to grab a cheeky equaliser.
And yet again it seems we owe a bit of grateful debt to our truly fantastic Referee as for the second week in a row his out-of-place whistle evidently helped us out. Last week he was forced to disallow a perfectly good goal for Maccabi when he blew his whistle when the ball was in mid-air (and going over my head and in) for a dodgy offside. This time it was our throw-in on the right which of course, Matt launched into the box. All I saw was Paul connect sublimely with the sweetest volley to drive the ball into the bottom lefty hand corner. Paul turned and ran off in delight, mobbed by our boys and we thought that was that. The Atlas lot were going bonkers at Lasty, complaining that they had heard him blow his whistle as the ball came over and they reckoned it made them all stop. This time, the Ref was having none of it, I think denying he'd blown at all, and firmly awarded the goal!! Superb. I love a favour!
We lost Matt towards the end of the half as he rather nastily turned his ankle badly and had to be carried off. The latest news is that there is no break but agonisingly he has injured some ligaments. Gutted for him. Matt's been a really strong player for us this season so I hope he can get back soon.
The second half was one way traffic all the way really but at the same time we dealt with it really well. There weren't any major dodgy moments for us and we coped really well - mainly because we kept our shape and Atlas were forced to play it side ways. Scottish John had a superb game and did save our bacon a couple of times with a last-ditch sliding tackle, but other than that it looked like we'd get another draw. In-fact we could have nicked it as twice we were able to counter attack and catch them on the break - one in particular saw Lev slide a super weighted pass down our left flank for a charging Mark to run onto. We couldn't make the final ball count and just weren't able to get a shot in on any of these breaks though.
Their little front guy (who looked about twelve) was a little ferret who had no sense of humour. Codz had properly wound him up at the end of the first half and it was comical to see this little 5ft Turkish chap tyring to square up to 6ft 5 Codz! Their lad looked like the little creature from Harry Potter called Dobby trying to take on Lord Valdemort!
Dobby found himself through one-on-one with me and as I rushed out to block him he chipped the ball over my left arm only to see it rebound off the left post and then cleared by the Scotsman. He wasn't happy as I chirped in his ear and he was being a right little gob-shite.
I only had a free-kick from twenty yards out to deal with that curled round the wall and straight at me so with only five minutes left I was sure that we'd done enough to get another draw.
Of course, things don't always go according to plan but it took a speculative long range effort that crashed the underside of my bar, bouncing down and in to beat me. I was so pissed off as we had worked really hard and deserved to get at least a draw.
Dobby found me after the final whistle to have a final swipe - little fucker!
To add insult to injury, there was no bloody bar open and no grub laid on by our hosts. I vote we send 'em to the Kebab house when we play them in Enfield in 2012.
This week's look-a-likes clearly have to be their little chirpy centre-forward and our very own Codz. Dobby and Valdemort take it away...
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