It was good to have Craig and Murray back after their holidays. It was also great to have Simon back in the team after his ghoulish experience in the 3s last week. Yogi was getting into the spirit from the start. He arrived in fancy dress with some very colourful shorts, which I believe were a tribute to the ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’.
Thanks to Pat for writing down the key things that happened in the match for me because I wouldn’t have had a clue otherwise.
First Half
* Sils got an early lead after 4 minutes. Alex ran at the defence from the 25 yard line and won a short corner. Simon took the straight strike and his shot was saved. It re-bounded to ‘Texas Chainsaw’ Harrison who hammered the ball home from a very tight angle. Great goal!
* Hales managed some good attacks down their right flank and one of their younger players managed to brutally impale Mick. Not to be deterred Mick ‘rose from the grave’ and carried on without complaint.
* The resurrected Mick made a rare journey into the opposition half. He received the ball wide and crossed it to Andy, who deflected it skilfully past the keeper to make it 2-0.
* It was good to see both wide defenders- Mick and Sam- pushing up when we were attacking to give the midfield a wide outlet to pass to.
* Old Hales had their first short corner after about 20 minutes. This was saved on the line by Craig. Shortly afterwards they won another short corner but the shot went wide of the goal.
* The next Sils goal came from open play. Good short passing through the midfield and forward line resulted in a shot from Simon, which was saved. It rebounded to Keith who managed a fiendish flick over the keeper to make it 3-0.
* Old Hales pulled one back before half time. A bit of a mix up from a usually solid defence left one attacker free in front of Yogi. A pass came in, which the attacker managed to deflect into the goal.
Second Half
* Old Hales put on a lot of pressure early in the second half, which could easily have resulted in goals. Yogi managed some great saves to maintain our 2 goal lead.
* Frank and Craig were solid at the back as were Dave, Alex and Simon in the middle to stop their fast, skilful midfield players running through us.
* Keith had a couple of shots in close succession from the edge of the D, which were both saved well by the keeper.
* Andy Rush made a number of death defying runs into the opposition D only to be scythed down by the defence. These resulted in 2 short corners in close succession. The second of these was slipped right to Andy who shot. The ball rebounded to Alex who slapped it into the bottom right corner... 4-1.
* The last goal was a great solo run at the defence and shot from Andy to make it 5-1.
* This was a good, solid performance and should put us in the mind-set we need for a tough game against Hampton next week.
After the game Tony looked around at the carved pumpkins, spooky ghosts and giant spiders that had been put up to decorate the clubhouse and asked the question that was on everybody’s lips. ‘This barbecue that’s on tonight… what are they celebrating?’