COWHC Mens 3s v Sanderstead Men's 2s - 27 February 2016

Where to start for this report?

Crunch game, top of the table clash... this was all that and more. Fortunately it wasn't a grey day, as last week had been, but a nice, chilly Saturday morning. Walking in the sunshine from the bus stop to the pitch, I was quite grateful that I hadn't had that extra can of special brew on Friday though!

With 3rd place Sanderstead visiting our house, and PWs away at Sunbury, we knew there was a good chance for us to go one step beyond and head the table. However, with the oppo coming off the back of 2 consecutive defeats, we were also wary of the wounded beast.

It was a scrappy start to the game, the importance of it no doubt hitting both teams like a Vatican broadside. Unfortunately for us, not only did that seemingly suit Sanderstead as they scored first, but it also set the tone for the whole game.

Going behind however did wake us up a bit and we started stringing our passing game together. TC and Corny up front were creating all sorts of havoc, particularly with the restless legs of youngsters Ben and Sam buzzing around them as though on the wings of a dove! This duly led to our our equaliser, fortunately coming soon enough after Sanderstead's goal to not enable them to build up a head of steam.

And then things started to fall to pieces... at least on a disciplinary level. First one of the oppo defenders decided to have a few words with Lisa P. Now she will probably admit she's not all sugar and spice or the sweetest girl, but that guy has clearly got no brains to decide to pick on her and he duly got a yellow card.

We swiftly and ruthlessly took advanage by scoring three more times before, sadly Corny decided to even up the numbers of personnel. I believe the words "shut up" may have been used, although not aimed directly at my girl Lisa, yet it was enough for him to join the Sanderstead player taking a break on the sidelines (Corny, by now you should surely know that you need to button your lip up fatty!). However, 10 v 10 saw COWs working better with the "gonna get along without you now" principal and we duly rattled in another goal!

After a few words from Cleashy at half time, principally along the lines of "let's keep calm, remember the harder they come, the harder they fall", we headed out for the second half. Whence just after we could say fatty's back in town and we were restored to 11 players, shame and scandal struck as Cocksy decided he too needed a break! Once again though, being one player short didn't hinder us, depsite the fact Sanderstead were at full strength, and we scored twice more. So dominant were we that Cocksy decided to compound his embarrasement and, while serving his time in the sin-bin, get involved in an on-pitch altercation that saw his time off extended.

With the prince (Corny) filling in at right back, we were holding out well, and even when Cocksy was allowed to re-join we were doing well until perhaps a touch of over-exuberance led to us getting caught on the counter-attack. A couple of half-clearances and slightly missed tackles later and the ball was touched into our net from all of about 1 foot.

As at the start of the game this shocked is into actually calming down and there was still time for us to create a few more chances before the game culminated in a Sanderstead player taking quite a nasty blow to the head while defending a short corner.

A 7 - 2 victory, I'm not sure I could wish for one better day with a game like that. Thanks to all of our very vocal support on the sidelines and massive thanks to both Lisa and the opposition umpire for dealing with one of the niggly-est games I've experience in a while.

Scorers were, I believe (sorry, I lost track!), TC with 3, Sam with 2 and Corny and Hoops one each. POM went to Sam for boundless energy and two superb finishes, DOD went to Cocksy for boundless vocals and two extra minutes in the bin!