Match Report Saturday 24th March

City of London I vs. Sinjuns Old Grammarians

Result 3 - 2

Scorers: Josh, Capo, Bayo

Top of the league vs second from bottom on Saturday proved a tougher fixture than paper would suggest.

With the away team starting brightly and City not fully awake, the greens were forced almost immediately to concede. Poor marking allowed the long-haired Sinjuns defender to head the ball unchallenged from a well placed corner... straight in the net... 1-0 to the opposition and a long game ahead.

City fought back though and a great passing move in the final third saw Josh and Bayo hook up to send the aussie powering toward goal. A cooly taken finish levelled up the scores. 1-1 and City beginning to dominate. Chance after chance went begging though as COL were unfortunate not to take the lead as the first half played out...

With a change in ends in the second half, came a change in dominance. The away team starting to hammer City's defence with wave upon wave of attacking play... all of which proved fruitless as a mean City defence held strong. 20 minutes in and time for City to go on a rare 2nd half attack. Josh causing problems as he dribbled through the opposition box. A poorly timed challenge and the referee left no choice but to point to the spot. Penalty

Up steps Capo, keeper vs defender, mono et mono, skin on skin... fonz-like in his coolness, Frankum sent the ball accurately into the right hand side of the goal. 1 penalty for City this season, 1 goal! 2 - 1

5 minutes later and stig found his legs taken from under him also in the penalty area! After no penalty decisions all season, City win a second in 5 minutes!!

Up steps Capo, keeper vs defender, mono et mono, skin on skin... Mr Bean-like in his coolness, Frankum sent the ball uncontrollably toward the right hand side of the pitch. 2 penalties for City this season, 1 goal! Still 2 - 1

Not beaten yet and taking advantage of their luck, Sinjuns kept fighting. A misplaced Bayo backpass with 15 minutes to go, and the pacey Sinjuns striker pounced. Bursting through a wrongfooted defence, he took his opportunity well to bring the scores back level!

No time to rue the missed pen, City attacked straight from the centre. A beautiful flowing move starting with a Josh/Stig 1-2 from the centre spot saw Bayo back in the thick of things on the right! Determined to make up for his earlier error not 2 minutes ago, he smashed the pigskin beyond the keeper's reach and into the net!

3-2 City and back in winning ways. The 3 points being all the sweeter as City are now officially promoted!!

Result

COLFC II 3 Old Sedcopians 1

Scorers - Andre 2, John Whitworth

MoM - Mikey Z - the guvnor in midfield

Another fine day in Eltham and a much-needed three points against Seds but doing it the hard way, again coming back from behind.

The tinkerman was at work again 4-4-2 restored and Keano returning to the starting line-up, with an appearance in nets from Capo fresh from penalty success and failure next door.

Again we made the quicker start and the chances soon came, and went. As we flooded forward though there was always a chance that a break could catch us light at the back and so it turned out, a corner for us was nodded clear and seized upon by the galloping Seds number 8. Bringing the ball unchallenged to the edge of the area he performed a lollipop Ronaldo-style swerving round the skipper and plonking the ball into the roof of the net over the sprawling Capo in nets.

So any expectation that we were in for an easy ride was completely dispelled but sleeves duly rolled up we set about restoring parity. A couple of chances fell to Kebabbe, one seeing a fantastic save from the keeper onto the post and it looked like a difficult half time looking at a deficit. Fortunately then in stepped Andre, who picked the ball up at the edge of the box, turned and hooked a precision shot into the side of the net.

There was still time though for Seds to strike back. A dangerous break found the ball at the feet of their striker on the edge of the box, a quick trick took him past Whitworth and an instant strike on goal fortunately found Capo on top of his game, a reflex save pushing the strike onto the bar which fortunately fell the right side of the line for Carl to sweep up. A lucky escape, Capo the hero.

1-1 at half-time.

The second half started as the first ended with a goal from Andre, this one slightly scrappier, pinball in the box and a lash into the roof of the net. Various chances came and went, but the goal which gave us a bit of breathing space came from (almost) the most unlikely source. Flush from striking success on the Sunday league pitches of south west London, Johnny Whitworth stole up for a corner. Decent delivery from Carl saw him rise majestically at the back stick to head a solid ball down which bounced and looped over the despairing keeper's dive.

Job done.

Result 0 - 1

An extremely disappointing defeat on Saturday effectively ended our chances of finishing second in the league. Barring a miracle result in the final game for Glyns, our opponents from Saturday will finish as runners up. Despite us turning up nice and early full of expectation and confidence, we were effectively bullied into a defeat against a limited but physical and well organised team. This was the second game in succession that the 3rds have had to play a ‘home’ fixture away from Eltham.

The pitch was very hard and bare, and the very strong swirling winds made the conditions very difficult for both teams and so any chance of trying to play a good passing game was nigh on impossible. Kicking off the first half into the strong wind was always going to be tough for COL, and sure enough Glyns made the faster start and came at us from the off. They used the wind to get the ball down the flanks, and soon had a couple of corners. We did well to stand firm against the early onslaught, but we could not get any time or space on the ball ourselves to relieve the pressure. Glyns were shooting from distance at every opportunity as they had the wind behind them, but I was getting a stiff neck watching them all fly high over the bar. In what turned out to be literally their only shot on target the entire match, Glyns took the lead after about 20 mins. A break down our left resulted in a deep cross that evaded the defence, and landed at the feet of an unmarked player, who was able to prod the ball home. This was disappointing as he was a Glyns defender who had run into the box unnoticed to have all the space he needed to score. COL did start to get a bit more possession and we created a few half chances. Clyson had a shot that was narrowly wide, and Rich had perhaps the clearest chance, through one on one, but their keeper made the right decision and he blocked the shot which fell to safety. This was to be the last clear chance of the game for COL to get back into the match. HT 0-1

The talk at half time was attempted to rally the team into rising above the physical challenges from Glyns, and try to use the wind to our advantage. We certainly enjoyed much more possession in the 2nd half, but unfortunately the game was never really allowed to flow. This was due to two reasons – (1) very poor refereeing throughout the game. He never took any control of the game and he allowed too many bad tackles to go unpunished, (2) the amount of free kicks we were awarded due to increasingly reckless tackles by Glyns. Several players were taken out from behind, often when the ball had gone, but the ref did nothing so Glyns continued this tactic for the entire second 45 minutes knowing they would avoid any reprimands. A couple of the free kicks were in good locations, but unfortunately we were not able to capitalise. We forced several attacking corners, but we simply could not find that one clear cut chance to equalise. As the minutes ticked by, Glyns simply put men behind the ball and we were effectively shut out. The game ended on a bad note as one of the Glyns players cynically took out Tom from behind without the ball being present. To our amazement the ref did not even blow up for a free kick, claiming that he was tackled from the side. This summed up his performance perfectly. A few choice words were exchanged between some of the players, as the bullying tactics had taken their toll and our patience had worn thin. Down to 10 men for the last few minutes, we had no more chances to try and equalise.

It was disappointing to hear some of the comments from the oppo at the final whistle. Tempers were obviously high but they had won the game and I would have hoped they would be more gracious in victory. That is with the exception of their skipper, who proved to be extremely sporting and offered his apologies for the performance of the ref. I realise not all of the verbal spats were from one team, but having just witnessed a very late cynical tackle on Tom, it was maybe understandable. I have to give credit to Glyns who played the conditions and the ref a lot better than we did on the day, and they gained revenge for the 4-1 reversal earlier in the season. This report may come across as a bit of sour grapes, and in some ways it is, but the overriding feeling is disappointment that we did not impose our game on the opposition, but rather the opposite happened. We have 2 games left and I fully expect us to bounce back and finish the season on a high note with 6 points.

MOM – not voted on, so I give it to the back 4 who played very well in difficult conditions