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Nov 25th - Nottingham 3 Sutton 2
A typical Autumn’s day at Goosedale: The rain has gone, leaving delicate brown lumps of sludge on the playing surface. Youngy prowls, eager to pick up his umpire’s cheque (ask the oppo). A local poacher, known, mysteriously as “Mr K” loiters by the dugout, looking to pick up any gems the 3rds might have unearthed for his own “premiership” ambitions. (Prophetically this was written before the subsequent weeks selection). This weeks 3rd team, arriving at the Goose in dribs and drabs as the meet time came and went.
It should be understood that Skipper Snelus is no “tinker man” swapping and dropping players on a whim. The fact that no 3rd team has ever been the same for two consecutive weeks this season is entirely the result of absence and injury. This weeks line up included three 3rd team debutants and Nicko, playing his second game for the side.
Whatever else is said about Tourettes he can find players. In his absence we had Tom more than filling in at right back and the bonus of Alex on the bench, ready to supplement the forward line.
With the players at his disposal the Skipper went 4-4-2 for the 1st time this season, thought that soon looked 3-5-2 as the Captain pushed up, all to the confusion of the injured Sellsy, running the bench & the tactical changes.
In truth, no formation looks great when the oppo have the upper hand, as Sutton did for large parts of the 1st half, picking up stray passes and charitable free hit awards, they looked to get the ball into the danger area quickly. They succeeded twice and could have had more, but for the interventions of the goal posts. Andy “the” Green(keeper) has clearly got to the chapter titled “fuck ups” in Foggy’s book “How to be a Goalie”, as he let the ball hit the post and come back into play, dallied with the rebound, softly kicked it to the Sutton forward, then watched with relief as the shot went wide.
If this gives the impression that it was one way traffic, it is misleading. Matt was looking to and largely succeeding in distributing the ball wide and early. The Legend’s stick was a ball magnet as he powered down the right and Marksy was dancing in the ‘D’, producing at least two gilt edged chances the Warrior would normally put away.
The revelation, however, was Nicko, running the midfield with power, authority and no little skill. He also proved a dab hand at short corner striking, first scoring himself then setting up the Skipper, who was so startled at receiving a pass from a short corner he actually scored.
2-2 at half time and all to play for, second place in the league the reward for the winner. One quick tactical switch later (thanks Jan), Matt switched to the outside, where he kept the width admirably; the Skipper moved into midfield in search of someone to maim and The Legend moved inside to mop up the debris.
The result was sustained Nottingham pressure, which finally told when a switched short corner allowed Alex to hammer the ball in for his debt goal in his debut game. 4 Shorts, 3 goals, nice work fellas!
Further pressure only resulted in more misses for the Warrior, continuing his wretched run of scoring form he’s suffered ever since the Skipper put him in his fantasy hockey team.
With 5 mins to go the 3rds seemed to take the collective decision to sit back a bit and protect their lead. Never the best at this a typically nervy period of defending ensued before the final whistle came, leaving the 3rds 3-2 up and back in second spot.
MoM : Nicko, by a long way
TotD : Warrior, should have had a hat-trick, ended up a busted flush
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DOUBLE MATCH REPORT
Notts 3rds 1 : Warwick Uni 7!
Wheels come off 3rd team promotion bandwagon in darkest Coventry
Notts 3rds 1 : Belper 2
No points, but maybe hope for the future?
After several weeks of riding their luck, the 3rd team finally came unstuck against East Prem new boys Warwick Uni. This was then followed up by losing the top of the table clash to Belper at home, as well as two of our best players into the bargain! Despite this your writer believes the nadir was reached in Coventry (how appropriate!) and the Belper loss showed things were starting to turn around.
First the rubbish. Frantic phone calls on Friday produced not one but two debutants for the 3rds. Goalie Robin must have had a premonition of what was to come, as he tried to get out of playing by ‘forgetting’ his helmet. Unfortunately for him the obliging Uni skipper ‘Bisto’ (I didn’t ask) loaned him one of theirs, and Robin was all set to double our goals against for the season.
It says a lot for the rest of the team that Robin was one of two candidates for MoM, only falling at the final hurdle due to the afore-mentioned helmet crisis. As his reward he was packed off to the 2nds to learn what a team in trouble really looks like!
In fact MoM went to Justin “Golden Stick in waiting” Willing. Once Sellsy’s hamstring had tweaked, and with Marksy dazed and confused on the left, Justin was reduced to running the forward line single-handedly. Despite his impressive efforts, he is not yet the finished Pierco, and his struggles were in vain.
Out of position, off form and unsupported, the midfield gave nothing, and the defence spent too much time at each others and the umpires throats to worry the Uni attack. For their verbals to the Umpires, the 3rd team would like to apologise, especially to Jonesy, ironically one of the best umpires in the club. Muppet of the match is shared between the whole team, with the exception of Robin and Justin. Special mention must go to Sellsy and Jonny ‘Tourettes’ for their own unique contributions to this debacle.
The next week was a different story, but similar result. With Andy back in goal, a revamped midfield and a better attitude all round, this team looked better and played better. Belper are clearly the class act of this division and had by far the lions share of chances and possession, especially in the first half.
Credit to Andy for some miracle saves, but also to the defence, same personnel, different attitude as Jan was immense in the tackle, and Tourettes had his best game for the club. The midfield, with the return of Studley and The Legend, and the debut of Nicko and a fired up Chris Bell, was a different animal, and gradually established a platform which allowed us to take the lead in the second half.
Once more the Sells/Willing combination worked its magic, and nearly did a second time, if Sellsy’s hamstring/ligament/something serious hadn’t exploded on him when he was clear and in full flight. That was the end of his match, and no doubt most of the season.
Having stopped the best that Belper could throw at him, Andy now turned to the next page in the Foggy book of goalkeeping and let a couple of relatively soft goals in to leave us 2:1 down. For his earlier efforts, he wins MoM. For those late goals he is also Muppet of the Match, pipping Sellsy’s hamstring, which should have passed the ball better as he collapsed in an untidy heap and Justin would have been through.
Your writer is now off on the 3rd team tour to Amsterdam, but will return with a eulogy for the departing Studley, who leaves the 3rd team to go snowboarding at Lake Tahoe - lucky bastard. There will be no report from the ‘Dam as according to the club captain - “What goes on tour, stays on tour!”
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