Uni Whites

One week after the C’s took on Windsor (and their linesman) and lost, it was the B’s turn.  It was round 2 of the cup, and players aplenty had started going missing already.  We still had a good looking squad though, with Coach Crab happy with the mix of youth and experience.

Eugene (dirty weekend), James (potty mouth), Stuart (broken wing), Simon & Patty (promoted) were all out.  With Big Dan away as well, Lewis took one for the team and donned the gloves.  Paul K – who’s been around as long as the opposition – started up top.  Ellery dropped in to #10; Leo stepped off the plane into #6; Gabe filled the gap at the back; and we were lucky enough to have Matt back on the wing.  Cup specialist John George, and Kirsten both came up from the D’s to help fill out the bench.

There was a chance we wouldn’t play at all though, with no ref at the designated kickoff time.  After a phone call or two though, he finally rocked up and we were able to start 15mins late.

We’ll blame the ref for our poor start then (we need to blame someone).  In the first two minutes, they played a ball down the left channel, splitting me and Gabe.  I thought Gabe had it covered on the by-line, but the crafty Windsor forward managed to give him the slip.  He took a couple of touches and managed to slam it past Lewis from close range.  Worst start possible.

Around the 15 minute mark it was 2-0.  A cross (corner?) just skimmed off their forward’s head and went in off one of our players…

We played ok for most of the half though.  A few too many long balls perhaps, as we thought that was the way to get around them.  We didn’t go through the middle enough, and when we did we made too many errors.

The second half was much of the same.  We had a couple of good chances.  Matt got onto a loose ball in the box to make it 2-1. Ellery skewed a chance at the back post after a low cross from the left.

I showed how little I’ve learned over the past two decades, and got myself a yellow while trying to get my winger sent off.

Rather than us running over the top of them, Windsor regained their 2 goal lead via the penalty spot. Thankfully their fourth goal was ruled offside to keep the scoreline fair.

On another day we could have had them, but this was not that day.  Enjoy the June long weekend off lads, and get around the A’s as we have a third crack at them.

The B’s played a ripper first half.  We kept possession well, and got two goals from shot/crosses which both looped over the keeper’s head.  The blot on the half was us falling asleep after the first goal, and allowing Pembroke to run into our box and force the ball home without much of a tackle.   So 2-1 up, and we were confident.

Unfortunately it was a game of two halves, and we were under pressure for much of the second half.  We had chances, and we managed to keep Pembroke at bay.  It was disappointing then that we handed them their equaliser from a corner: a free header which should have been saved went into the net off Paulie on the post.

And then, with just about the final touches of the game, Pembroke’s left winger played a nice one-two with their striker, and blasted the ball into the top left corner from about 20yards.  Terrible way to lose a game in which we’d never been behind in, but you had to applaude the finish…

We’ll have to start again in round 2.