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 NOVEMBER

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Sunday 2nd November 2008
Mercury Waltham Sunday League Division One Match at Waltham Cross Playing Fields
 WHITE HART

 2

  EDMONTON ROVERS

4 

  

HT 1-4
    Mallick (2 mins.),
    Charles (65 mins.)
  		      T.Brown (7 mins.),
    Dorward (23, 32 mins.),
    King (34 mins.)		      
WHITE HART'S LINE-UP: Ben SMITH (GK); Darren CROSS, Jamie COOK, Jason SEABROOK, Dave BAIRD; Jason COOPER, Tom BUSH, Matt CHARLES, Mark NICOLL; Jay RICHARDSON, Thomas MALLICK   Subs.: Glen ELEY (On for Cross in Second Half), Matt POWELL (Not Used),  Ben SCHOOLING (Not Used), Darren JORDANOU (Not Used)
EDMONTON ROVERS LINE-UP (with Marks out of 10): Darryl JOHNSON (GK) (5½); Stuart DORWARD (7½), Alan BARNARD (7), Paul WOOLSTON (7); Tony KING (7); Rob BROWN (7½), Tem ADIL (7), Steve COKELL (7½); Terry BROWN (7), Daniel DALEY (7), Vernon NXUMALO (7)  Subs.: Foysol AHMED (On for King 68 mins.) (6), Jamie MARTIN (On for Daley 68 mins.) (6½), James WHITTICK (On for Nxumalo 68 mins) (6½)
Referee:   Chris CONNORS Weather Conditions:   Mainly Cloudy Attendance:   20
Report (by Laurence Hughes):  While I was setting up the camera for this match, a group of whom appeared to be 'Groundhoppers' came over and asked me what the fixture was. Surprisingly, when I said White Hart v. Edmonton Rovers and that it was a bottom of the table clash, they stayed and watched the whole game !
Maybe it was because they had never seen a team wearing Orange Shirts and Jade Socks before, but that was us for this match with White Hart being the only other team in our Division who wear green and therefore, as the Home side, necessitating a change for us.
We had played White Hart's First Team on 12 previous occassions since they joined the League in the late-80's (shortly after us), and invariably had close games with them, including two draws in Division One last season when both of us finished in mid-table. However, White Hart had lost five of their seven League & Cup matches so far this season, including a 5-0 defeat to newly-promoted Turnford Geese in their previous match, this being mainly as a result of them suffering from the same problems we faced three seasons ago when our First Team lost a lot of quality players through retirement and had to throw former Reserve Team players in at the deep end when they were not of Division One quality.
However, that didn't stop one of White Hart's ex-Reserve Team players, forward Tom Mallick, giving them the lead after only two minutes as he toe-poked in a harmless looking through ball after capitalising on hesitancy from keeper Darryl Johnson, who obviously should have turned up to training and benefitted from Manager Trevor Hughes's coaching rather than sitting at home watching Manuel Almunia letting long throw-ins through his legs or Heurelio Gomes punching his own defenders in the head. In fact we were lucky that White Hart were missing their best player in their usual leading scorer Ian 'Itchy' Welch, but then we were without first-choice players Conor Mc,Govern (Working), Danny Hagan (Ankle Injury) and Terry Moore (Fractured Hand) ourselves, not to mention several others who had to drop out because of family commitments. However, we still fielded a reasonable side including plenty of players who were adept at taking free-kicks so it seems as Terry Brown showed after just 7 minutes when he equalised with a screamer into the top corner from 25 yards.
We then really got on top after that with Alan Barnard, Tony King and Tem Adil all showing the benefit of turning up to training and practising 2 or 3-touch passing in a confined space, as White Hart's pitch is very much on the small side and not easy to play on normally, although the heavy rain from the previous day and the decision by the local Council to cut the grass for a change actually made for a very decent surface to that which we have encountered over there in the past. It would have helped if the rest of our players were able to attend training though, but instead of scoring from flowing passing moves like we normally do, this time we actually profited from set pieces for all four goals. The second came in the 23rd minute when Stuart Dorward headed in a pinpoint corner from Steve Cokell, then skipper Dorward scored again just 9 minutes later to put us 3-1 up with another header, this time after White Hart defender Jamie Cook had inadvertently flicked on Terry Brown's corner at the near post. White Hart then really fell apart after that and we added a fourth goal just two minutes later when Tony King won the right to take aim from another 25-yard free-kick on the basis of him successfully practising them at training, and he proved Manager Hughes right by hitting another screamer into the same top corner that Terry Brown had managed. A White Hart player actually told me after that the match that they felt keeper Ben Smith was at fault for both free-kicks for not moving his feet before diving, but that looked a bit harsh to me. I don't think he had time to move !?
 We eventually came off at Half-Time 4-1 up, but we could easily have scored two or three more had our front two of Daniel Daley and Vernon 'Kizza' Nxumalo been a bit more clinical and positive with their finishing. It was obvious that White Hart were therefore going to fire themselves up for the Second Half and not surprisingly our defenders had a lot more work to do after the break, especially after midfielder Matt Charles pulled a goal back for them in the 65th minute when he was left unmarked to fire in the rebound from close range after Darryl Johnson had fumbled a harmless-looking free-kick. Thankfully, D.J. did make one or two scrambled saves after that, while we rode our luck a few times with shots going just wide, but we had a number of good chances ourselves on the break, most notably when Jamie Martin and James Whittick were brought on up front for Daley and Kizza for the last 20 minutes or so, but neither of them could beat keeper Smith, who made some good saves, although the finishing was once again unconvincing after good approach play, and that was certainly where we missed Conor Mc,Govern.
However, it was a valuable three points in the end, even if we didn't actually move up the table due to other teams at the bottom winning, but we still have a few players looking a bit 'stiff' due to recent injuries and a lack of 11-a-side practice wearing boots on grass (as opposed to 5-a-side wearing trainers on Astroturf), and that definitely needs to be sorted out if we are to beat some of the better teams in the Division and maybe even challenge for the title.

 

 

Sunday 9th November 2008
Mercury Waltham Sunday League Division One Match at Hazelwood Sports Ground
 EDMONTON ROVERS

 1

  ST. MARGARETSBURY (SUNDAY)

5 

  

HT 0-3
    Daley (75 mins.)
 
 
  		       Angelini (35 mins.),
     White (39 mins.),
     Eldridge (45 mins.),
     Sweeney (86, 94 mins.)		      
EDMONTON ROVERS LINE-UP (with Marks out of 10):  Darryl JOHNSON (GK) (6½); John BEASLEY (5½), Alan BARNARD (5½), Paul WOOLSTON (5½); Tony KING (6), Tem ADIL (5½), Rob BROWN (5½), Steve COKELL (6); Terry BROWN (6); Daniel DALEY (6), Vernon 'Kizza' NXUMALO (6½)   Subs.:  Foysol AHMED (On for T.Brown 43 mins.) (5½), James WHITTICK (On for King 60 mins.) (6½) , Stuart DORWARD (On for Adil 60 mins.) (6)
ST. MARGARETSBURY'S LINE-UP:  Matthew DEAMER (GK); Darren MINGAY, Simon BOLDEN, Ronnie ELLIOTT; Mark ELLIOTT, Gary ELDRIDGE, Ian WHITE, Dominic ANGELINI, Richard GREEN; Gerry ADAMSON, Jamie SWEENEY  Subs.: None !
Referee:   Anthony WILLS Weather Conditions:   Very Windy Attendance:   11
Report (by Laurence Hughes):  After a good win the week before and also having beaten St. Margaretsbury 5-0 only a month ago, we were quite rightly confident of gaining another victory from this match which would have put us into a comfortable mid-table position, but as soon as the gale-force wind started whipping up an hour before the kick-off, maybe we should have guessed that it wasn't going to be our day, especially given that we historically concede at least seven goals per match whenever we face those sort of weather conditions at Hazelwood !
Manager Trevor Hughes was actually hoping to keep an unchanged starting line-up for the first time in about 5 years, but as usual, somebody dropped out with a bizarre excuse, the culprit this time being skipper Stuart Dorward, who injured his back (again) the day before whilst on his hands and knees on his kitchen floor clearing up a 'flood'. He therefore had to spend the whole of the First Half at home doing 'stretching exercises' (in his bedroom ?) in order to come down to the ground for the Second Half and come on as a substitute in case of emergencies, while midfielder John Beasley (who was returning after a three-year absence for another spell with the club) had to play as a makeshift central defender in Dorward's place with no Terry Moore, Martin Loveday or Jim Arrowsmith (amongst others) available either.
Meanwhile, in attack we were still without Conor Mc,Govern due to work commitments, while Jamie Martin had gone on holiday (without anybody informing us) and Danny Green simply failed to turn up, almost certainly because he didn't realise he had been named in the squad. We were also under-strength in midfield again with Danny Hagan still out injured and Paul Amico & Aron White seemingly unable to get out of various family commitments, but St. Margaretsbury turned up with just a bare eleven themselves and seemed to be suffering a lot more than us from non-availability of key players, no doubt as a result of the past five weeks seeing them lose three matches and not being given a game at all for the other two weeks...their last victory being against us on the 28th September !
With our 5-0 Cup win being one of those three defeats for them though, St. Margaretsbury were always going to be fired up for revenge in this match no matter what team they had out, and with the wind behind them in the First Half as we defended the 'cowshed' end, it was not surprising that Darryl Johnson was the busier of the two keepers. Fortunately he was on much better form than the previous week and kept us in the game for well over half an hour with some good stops, while we could even have gone 1-0 up against the run of play in the 33rd minute but Vernon 'Kizza' Nxumalo had strayed just offside when he converted Terry Brown's through ball.
However, it then all went wrong from the 35th minute onwards when St. Margaretsbury midfielder Dominic Angelini suddenly found himself clean through on goal to beat Darryl in a one-on-one, then just four minutes later, Ian White made it 2-0 with a well-struck shot from the edge of the area from the rebound after Steve Cokell had blocked his initial attempt. We then had another problem as Terry Brown pulled up with a back injury in the 43rd minute and had to be replaced by Foysol Ahmed, so that saw Foysol play on the right and Tony King go into the centre of midfield...where he had been pleading to play since the start of the season. However, right on the Half-Time whistle, Tony allowed St. Margaretsbury's Gary Eldridge to sprint away from him straight through a square defence on to a through ball as a number of our defenders pushed up trying to play offside...but that trap was intended for 'inactive' forward Gerry Adamson, leaving Eldridge to time his run perfectly and score with ease. That saw Wooly and Tony blame Manager/Lino Hughes for not flagging for the appeal 'because other teams Linos would', but in his Half-Time team-talk, Trevor was quite right to have a rant for a change and tell all our players to raise their games instead of looking for somebody else to blame for their own mistakes.
In fact, we had been a bit of a shambles all round and deserved to be 3-0 down at Half-Time because of a really casual attitude. For a start, we had various players turning up just 5 minutes before the kick-off and then being really 'stiff' as a result and others turning up with moulded stud boots on what was a quagmire of a pitch...and in James Whittick's case, turning up with no boots at all ! (He had to go back home and get a pair, which then seemed to be white Astroturf boots !?). It also looked as if a number of our players had been up all night waiting for the Calzaghe/Roy Jones Jnr. fight to start...but it didn't until 5.00.a.m. (instead of 1.00.a.m. as 'cleverly billed'), while John Beasley was playing despite a heavy cold...for which he almost dropped out a couple of hours before the kick-off. Meanwhile, Tem Adil looked as if he had put on a stone in weight in the space of a week thanks to us having to cancel training on Thursday night because only three players bothered to turn up !
At least Manager Hughes's Half-Time rollicking had some effect as we played better in the Second Half with the wind behind us, but we still found it difficult to create clear-cut chances, mainly because St. Margaretsbury's players were typically bigger, stronger and fitter and ideally suited to the conditions whereas the average height of our side for this match was about 5 foot 6 !  That saw us bring on Nicklas Bentdner/Peter Crouch lookalike James Whittick and the half-injured Stuart Dorward for Tony King and Tem Adil in the 60th minute to try and improve things in that respect, and Whittick did really well to create a goal for Daniel Daley with a clever flick in the 75th minute, and at only 3-1 down and with the wind getting even stronger, we were well capable of getting a draw at least in the remaining 15 minutes. However, although Whittick had a couple of half-chances, he was just as bad as everybody else most of the time when it came to bad passing, poor control and a lack of teamwork and St. Margaretsbury killed the game off in the 86th minute with a fourth goal as their big centre-forward Jamie Sweeney easily overpowered Alan Barnard and sprinted past a static Paul Woolston to score an admittedly good solo goal. Our heads then really went down after that, and it was ironic that Rob Brown should make an uncharacteristically bad mistake for St. Margaretsbury's 5th goal in Injury Time when he passed the ball straight to Sweeney while under no pressure at all, as he had spent most of the First Half in particular quite rightly shouting out to his team-mates 'Come on lads, this is s**t, let's raise our game' !
In fact, by that stage we were playing so badly it was laughable, and that's what everybody did after that mistake. The shambles/poor attitude continued after the final whistle though with a number of players going straight home (seemingly in a huff ?) as soon as they could (without saying if they were going training or not...probably not ?!), while their dirty kit had all been left turned inside out instead of the right way out and then slung in the clean kit bag instead of the white wash bag. However, at least it does appear that most teams in our Division are having similar erratic results and beating each other, although on this evidence it once again looks as if we are more likely to be facing yet another relegation battle this season rather than mounting a promotion challenge.
The good news is that our next match is against our long-standing rivals and former Premier Division title contenders (with us) Percival who, while we were producing this dire performance, suffered a 4-1 defeat at Home in the Middlesex Sunday Junior Cup...as opposed to the Middlesex Sunday Premier Cup which they are supposed to be in !...to a team who are bottom of the bottom Division in their (inferior) League...or near enough ! Next week then, expect a 9-a-side match of AFA 9th XI standard ?

 

Sunday 16th November 2008
Mercury Waltham Sunday League Senior Cup, Second Round Match at Hazelwood Sports Ground
 EDMONTON ROVERS

 1

  PERCIVAL

3 

  

HT 1-2
    T.Brown (14 mins.)        Russell (19, 45, 47 mins.)      
EDMONTON ROVERS LINE-UP (with Marks out of 10):  Martin LOVEDAY (GK) (7); Stuart DORWARD (6½), Alan BARNARD (6½), Terry MOORE (6); Foysol AHMED (5½), Tem ADIL (6), Rob BROWN (7), Jim ARROWSMITH (7); Terry BROWN (6); Daniel DALEY (6), Conor Mc,GOVERN (6)   Sub.:  Gavin MARDELL (Not Used)
PERCIVAL'S LINE-UP:  Steve RITTER (GK); Warren BARKER, Wayne TARPLETT, Paul CHRISTODOULOU, Ian HILLIER; Koby COOPER, Ian BARNES, Ben WINCH, Daniel JAGGERS; Alex CLARK, Dave RUSSELL  Subs.: Aaron WAITE (On for Cooper 59 mins.), Steve PRICE (On for Winch 76 mins.), Nick BANKS (Not Used)
Referee:   Eddie ANDREWS Weather Conditions:   Cloudy with rain in 2nd Half Attendance:   26
Report (by Laurence Hughes):  Back in Season 2002-2003, both ourselves and Percival were battling it out with Brimsdown Rovers for the Premier Division title, as most our players were then in their late-20's/early-30's and in their prime. Percival were our main rivals in those days with us both drinking down On Broadway after matches and having players who knew each other, either as former pupils of Edmonton County School or from playing in Senior Saturday football with Hoddesdon Town. Since those heady days though, we have been continually struggling in Division One while Percival have just about clung on to their Premier Division status, this being as a result of both teams' players getting 'too old' and their younger players not being up to Premier Division or Division One standard ...so far. When we were drawn against Percival in this competition then (for what would be our first meeting with them for four years) there should have been much anticipation from those of our players who are still with us from those Premier Division days, but such is the change in priorities nowadays that only Stuart Dorward and Conor Mc,Govern were available from our 'old guard' as the likes of Steve Cokell, Darryl Johnson, Paul Woolston, Tony Speller and John Beasley were all absent (mainly because of family commitments), leaving us with a team for this match of whom nine were treating it as 'just a normal game'. In fact there was such apathy amongst our players that five of our 16-man squad dropped out in the 24 hours before kick-off with excuses that suggested they didn't think it would matter as 'we had plenty of players anyway' ! A 5-1 defeat the previous week didn't help of course, but Percival had been in even worse form themselves, having lost 6-1 to Uniques (the bottom team in our Division) in the Roy Bailey Challenge Cup and having suffered some severe thrashings in various Premier Division matches. However, unlike us, most of Percival's players from the 2002-2003 Season were really up for this game, and that saw them turn up with 'by far' the strongest side they had put out so far this season, whereas we only had a bare eleven with substitute Gavin Mardell (a new signing) only being fit enough at the moment to be used in case of injuries...thanks to yet another cancelled training session in midweek. It was by no means the worst side we have put out though, and with Percival having to put defender Steve Ritter in goal, we were always going to get a bit of encouragement from that. In fact we actually took the lead after just 14 minutes when Terry Brown's long free-kick into the area bounced tamely into the far corner after Ritter had seemingly been put off by Conor Mc,Govern failing to get a touch on the ball !?
However, Percival had been the better side right from the off, and they deservedly equalised just five minutes later when Dave Russell, who actually played for us on Tour in Prague back in 2001, headed in from close range after a deep outswinging corner was headed back towards the 6-yard box by Ian Barnes. We then had a number of escapes, while keeper Martin Loveday had been kept busy all half as virtually the whole of our team were well off the pace and second best all round. In fact we didn't manage to test keeper Ritter at all after that 14th minute goal, although he had been lucky to remain on the pitch when he handballed outside the area early on to stop Daniel Daley scoring...this leading to loads of banter between the pair that got ridiculously out of hand and had to be sorted out by Referee Eddie Andrews on the Half-Time whistle. Just seconds before that whistle went though, we had allowed Percival to come off with a 2-1 lead as Dave Russell scored his second of the match with a well-placed half-volley on the turn after Ian Barnes was allowed too much room to get a cross in. That was extremely annoying, as 'escaping' with a 1-1 scoreline would have made Manager Trevor Hughes's half-time team talk a lot easier. Instead, our heads were down and they went down even further just two minutes after the break when Russell completed his hat-trick to make it 3-1 with an excellent header from another pinpoint Ian Barnes cross. For the rest of the Second Half though, Percival were content to defend deeper and deeper, and that gradually allowed us to start passing the ball about at last as their ageing players visibly tired (having run around at 100 mph in the First Half to stop us playing our normal game). However, we had no real cutting edge at all, as Conor Mc,Govern looked very stiff after missing our last two matches because of work commitments, while Foysol Ahmed, Tem Adil and Daniel Daley all really struggled against Percival's vastly experienced players.
If we had managed to pull a goal back to make it 3-2, Percival may well have crumbled, but we never really looked like doing that and we slumped to another miserable defeat to leave us with nothing to play for yet again as far as Cup Competitions go, and another probable relegation dogfight in Division One.
Another player in Daniel Daley's Cousin Ramel Palmer was therefore signed up straight away to cope with the inevitable lack of interest that is already starting to happen from numerous currently registered players, while even down the Pub afterwards it was a bit depressing when they gave all the chips, chicken nuggets and sausages to Percival's table and forgot about us...even though we had more club members down there than actually played in the match !

 

Sunday 23rd November 2008  
Mercury Waltham Sunday League Division One Match at the Holtwhites Sports & Social Club, Enfield
 NORTHMET (RIVERSIDE)

 4

  EDMONTON ROVERS

4 

  

HT 3-1
   Constantinou (3 mins.),
   Johnson (Own Goal) (6 mins.),
   Chatterton (13 mins.),
   Barnard (Own Goal) (89 mins.)		      Dorward (11, 65 mins.),
    Mc,Govern (60 mins.),
    Arrowsmith (88 mins.)
   		     
NORTHMET (RIVERSIDE)'S LINE-UP: Lewis HOWARD ? (GK); Iain GROOME, Jamie JONES ?, Jared PETTS, Martin GARWOOD; Peter STYLIANOU, Aidan MULLALLY, Dave HUMPHREYS, Gerardo RIZZO; Vas CONSTANTINOU, Alan CHATTERTON  Subs.: Jamie WEBB ? (On for Rizzo 60 mins.), Kyle HODGSON (On for Chatterton 60 mins.), Paul FLYNN (On for Constantinou 82 mins.)
EDMONTON ROVERS LINE-UP (with Marks out of 10): Darryl JOHNSON (GK) (7); Paul WOOLSTON (7), Alan BARNARD (7½), Jim ARROWSMITH (7½); Paul AMICO (7½), Rob BROWN (7), Stuart DORWARD (8), Gavin MARDELL (6); Terry BROWN (7); Conor Mc,GOVERN (7), Tony KING (7)  Sub.:  Vernon 'Kizza' NXUMALO (On for Mardell at Half-Time) (7)
Referee:   Paul HERLIHY Weather Conditions:   Constant Heavy Rain Attendance:   17
Report (by Laurence Hughes):  With our season more-or-less being ended the previous week in terms of winning trophies, it was perhaps not surprising that a number of players would start losing interest and decide to work instead...or not bother to get in touch to let us know if they were still injured or not. However, we still had a strong squad of 14 players available up until the morning of the match, but then things started to go wrong as usual. Although the threat of heavy snow had subsided and the game was definitely on, we only had two players at the venue at 10.00.a.m....Darryl Johnson and Jim Arrowsmith arriving at that time on the dot..., but everybody else turned up well after that for a variety of reasons, and by 10.15, we were still waiting for five players and in danger of kicking-off with only 9 men. We then had a phone call from Rob & Terry Brown asking if the game had been called off because they couldn't see anybody ! Evidently they had gone to the following week's venue (Pound Close in Hoddesdon) instead after mis-reading the website ! We then had Vernon 'Kizza' Nxumalo phoning shortly afterwards to say that he was stuck in traffic in Enfield Town Centre and that his SatNav was telling him he would be at Holtwhites in five minutes, so he would therefore get there at around 10.20.a.m. and be in time for the kick-off. However, there was no sign of Tem Adil and Daniel Daley (who Tem normally picks up), so we assumed that they must have been stuck in traffic as well and that they would have to be named as substitutes along with new signing Gavin Mardell, who had only been registered to play in emergencies due to a lack of fitness and never having played at this level before.
With Northmet having been out on the pitch warming up for 30 minutes and Referee Paul Herlihy getting impatient due to the torrential rain which had just started falling, Manager Trevor Hughes was therefore forced to promote all three of his intended substitutes into the starting line up as the clock ticked round to 10.35.a.m. and with a fine from the League being threatened. Thankfully though, one of those was right wing-back Paul Amico, who was now available again after several weeks out with family commitments and a back injury, while Mardell also had to be thrown in at the deep end in a left wing-back position (despite being right-footed). Tony King therefore came in to partner Conor Mc,Govern up front with Daley still having not arrived (or phoned to let us know where he was), but it certainly wasn't the worst side we have put out so far this season. However, all the uncertainty and 'mad rush' just before the kick-off did us no favours whatsoever, as we had players putting the water bottles one side of the pitch and the medical kit the other, our Scottish skipper Stuart Dorward refusing to wear the League's new 'Respect Campaign' Captain's Armband because it had an England badge on it, Manager Hughes almost missing the kick-off because he was still looking out for Kizza arriving, and Tony King booting one of our practice balls into a back garden...hopefully Simon Jackson's ?...albeit by an unlucky deflection off the crossbar while he was booting 'shots' willy-nilly at Darryl Johnson in the 'warm-up' !
Having beaten us 7-3 in our only meeting last season (in a game that they deserved to win 15-0 based on the Shots Count from the video), it was therefore so predictable that Northmet would fly out of the traps having warmed up properly, and sure enough they took the lead after just 3 minutes when Vas Constantinou punished a mistake by Jim Arrowsmith with a good finish from close range. Not that I saw much of it, as the camera's viewfinder had misted up badly because It was so cold (only 2°C) and wet. Three minutes later I was therefore left wondering 'who the hell was that player in a jade shirt wearing No.15 who just made a horrendous mistake to let that through ball under his foot for their No.8 to drill a low shot onto the post and rebound in off Darryl's arse to give them a 2-0 lead already ?'. I actually had no idea at that stage that Gavin Mardell had started the game...then I looked over towards the clubhouse and saw Kizza only just turning up and realised why ! At that point, it looked like a 10-0 defeat (or more) was a certainty, as Northmet had also created four other clear-cut chances already, but Gavin and indeed the rest of our players settled down after that as the first 10 minutes was our warm-up ! In fact Stuart Dorward pulled a goal back after just 11 minutes when he cleverly re-adjusted himself to score with a diving header after Tony King's shot had rebounded off the post, and it then looked like a crazy scoreline was on the cards, especially when Northmet made it 3-1 just two minutes later when Alan Chatterton scored from the rebound after a good save by Darryl Johnson from Vas Constantinou's shot. Thankfully there were no further goals in the First Half as we gradually tightened up defensively, although we only really had one clear-cut chance ourselves when Paul Woolston shot narrowly wide from just inside the area following a set-piece after 30 minutes. We really got our passing going as the half went on though, with Gavin Mardell showing some good ability in that respect, but it was obvious that Kizza had to be brought on at the start of the Second Half to add more pace and fitness to our attacking options with us still 3-1 down. That clearly made a difference as Kizza was put up front for Tony King to play left midfield where he is far more effective in everybody else's opinion, even if for some reason he doesn't think so himself ! In fact we dominated the start of the Second Half almost as much as Northmet had in the first, with 5 or 6 really good chances being created, the best of them coming from a slick four-man move in the 52nd minute, but Stuart Dorward somehow sliced his shot wide after finding himself clean through from Tony King's pass. We therefore had to wait until the 60th minute for Conor McGovern to pull a goal back with a fierce close range drive after an excellent through ball from Paul Amico, then Stuart Dorward made it 3-3 just five minutes later after running straight through the Northmet defence who were appealing for offside against another player (Kizza ?) who was not active. Northmet were then able to bring on three good substitutes though, whereas Tem Adil and Daniel Daley had still not turned up for us, and that saw them get on top for a 10-15 minute spell, but we weathered the storm (literally as well as the rain had by now finally stopped) thanks to some good saves by Darryl Johnson and some solid defending, and it was then anyone's game in the last 10 minutes in what was a really entertaining match to watch on what had become an absolute mudbath of a pitch. With just two minutes to go, it looked like defender Jim Arrowsmith would be the hero for us when he made it 4-3 with a superb low drive into the far bottom corner from Tony King's lay-off that signalled some rarely seen 'manic' celebrations by the rest of our players. However Referee Paul Herlihy spoiled the fun when he missed an obvious foul on Paul Amico just a minute later which would have enabled us to slow the game down and play out the remaining minute or so. Instead, the ball ended up in the back of our net 30 seconds later thanks to an absolute freak goal as Paul Woolston’s clearance hit Rob Brown and fell to Northmet defender Martin Garwood, whose shot was heading towards the corner flag but deflected off Alan Barnard into the corner of the net to give Darryl Johnson no chance. With our players (and Chelsea fan Wooly in particular) immediately haranguing the Referee for that goal and not letting the matter rest, it wasn't a surprise to see him blow for time a minute early...and for that, we only have ourselves to blame. Although a 4-4 draw was probably a fair result, it was a really cruel blow, and particularly for Jim Arrowsmith, but Refereeing mistakes normally even themselves out, and we may well get a point or win a game later in the season when we are the beneficiaries. The good thing was the performance (against a good side) after being 2-0 and 3-1 down so early on. The bad thing was Tem Adil forgetting to put his alarm on and Daniel Daley disappearing again...not the Referee's mistake !

 

Sunday 30th November 2008  
Mercury Waltham Sunday League Division One Match at Pound Close, Hoddesdon
 BROXBOURNE RANGERS OLD BOYS

 5

  EDMONTON ROVERS

0 

  

HT 0-0
   Green (62, 64, 87, 90 mins.),
   Hockley (83 mins.)		  
   		     
BROXBOURNE RANGERS OLD BOYS LINE-UP: Graham WIGGS (GK); Dave MILSON, Mark WILLIAMSON, Ryan PARKER, Paul ISHAM; Scott PEDROZ, Tom MERCER, James THORNE, Glen BASTICK; John HOCKLEY, Alan GREEN  Subs.: None
EDMONTON ROVERS LINE-UP (with Marks out of 10): Darryl JOHNSON (GK) (6); Terry MOORE (6), Alan BARNARD (6), Jim ARROWSMITH (6); Gavin MARDELL (6½), Tem ADIL (5½), Danny HAGAN (7½), Vernon 'Kizza' NXUMALO (6½); Terry BROWN (6½); Jamie MARTIN (6½), Daniel DALEY (6½)  Subs.:  None
Referee:   Paul DOBSON Weather Conditions:   Constant Heavy Rain Attendance:   9
Report (by Laurence Hughes):  After an encouraging performance the week before, it was really frustrating that we had to make six changes to our starting line up for this match due to the absence of Stuart Dorward (Having a Work Corporate Hospitality 'Do' at Spurs), Conor Mc,Govern (On Holiday), Rob Brown (Working), Paul Woolston (Babysitting), Tony King (Visiting his relatives in Hull) and Paul Amico (Pissed from Danny Green's Birthday Party), but at least we had some good players returning to replace them in Terry Moore, Danny Hagan (who had been out for nearly two months with an ankle injury), Daniel Daley, Jamie Martin, Vernon 'Kizza' Nxumalo (who had to be named as a substitute the week before after turning up late) and Tem Adil. With Broxbourne Rangers having lost 4-0 to a Division Two side the week before in the Roy Bailey Challenge Cup and missing several regulars themselves, we were therefore expecting the usual close game with them, and indeed that's how the First Half panned out with both sides having some good chances but not being able to beat goalkeepers Darryl Johnson or Graham Wiggs, who both looked in good form. In fact we played the better football with some good crisp passing despite the atrocious conditions (yet again), but we had too many crosses going across the face of goal without anybody being able to get a touch, whereas Broxbourne Rangers Old Boys were invariably hitting the target with shots from in and around the area with a more direct approach.
After a good positive Half-Time team talk we therefore came out for the Second Half confident of producing more of the same, but it soon started going wrong as Rangers' superior strength and fitness took over and we had already survived a number of lucky escapes before Alan Green rather inevitably put them 1-0 up in the 62nd minute when he chipped Darryl Johnson with an apparent shot that looked like a cross (as usual against us !?). We then conceded another just two minutes later when Green scored again with a good finish into the bottom corner from a long ball, but we didn't quite crumble at that stage and did create the odd half-chance or two. However, any hope of a comeback was killed off in the 83rd minute when John Hockley back-headed a long throw over Darryl and into the far top corner, and with us having no outfield substitutes to bring on (thanks to a lack of interest from numerous registered players), it was not surprising that Green completed his hat-trick in the 87th minute with another shot that looked like a cross sailing over D.J.'s head, and then our demoralised keeper passed the ball straight to Green in the last minute for him to easily make it 5-0, sparking quite a few angry words from those who cared (like me) on the Final Whistle. However, Darryl wasn't particularly to blame as he had kept us in the game for a long while with several fine saves even if he was at fault for some of the goals. Where it went wrong for us was not having any of our three central midfielders willing to sit in front of the back three all match (like Rob Brown and the injured Clark Williams do), which would have undoubtedly helped them deal with Rangers' tactics of hoofing a long ball out of defence for one of their midfielders to join up with their front two, thereby leaving us facing a three-against-three situation time and time again. Unfortunately, the main culprit was Tem Adil due to an appalling lack of fitness in comparison to Danny Hagan and Terry Brown, who of course both play in Senior Saturday football for Crouch End Vampires First XI and Wormley Rovers respectively whereas Tem presumably spends his Saturday afternoons eating burgers and kebabs !? Danny and Terry were therefore able to get up and down the pitch whereas Tem was able to go down the pitch into attacking positions (at the same time as Danny and Terry) but not get back up it again into position to defend. In the 90's when we went up the Divisions, we had a similar build of player (and eat-a-holic) to Tem in Russell 'Tarby' Beeden, who sensibly played a holding role in front of the defence and stayed there all match because he was not fit enough to get up and down the pitch. If Tem was prepared to do that it would solve the problem, but instead, he declared at the end of this match that he has now had enough due to some of our players constantly moaning at him to do more work defensively. Whether he plays again remains to be seen, but such a heavy defeat to an average mid-table side shows that we cannot carry passengers at this level.
It was such a damaging scoreline that it would not be a surprise at all to see other players following suit with the 'I'm not enjoying it any more' excuse coming out, but we have more new players lined up and others due to return from long-term injuries after Christmas, so hopefully it will be alright.
Once again though, it was more confirmation that we just cannot seem to cope whenever Stuart Dorward, Conor Mc,Govern and Rob Brown (arguably our three best players) are all missing at the same time, and unfortunately, that situation is bound to happen again this season.

 

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