Match Report
West Bridgford United (3) v Derby Ams (3)
| Player | Rating | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Adam White | 9 | |
| 6 | Dale Blackburn | 7 | |
| 7 | Mark Jebbett | 9 |  |
| 8 | Michael Hart | 8 | |
| 9 | Ben Perry | 7 |
Date: 08/12/07
Team: 2nds
Match Type: League
Venue: Away
Opposition: West Bridgford UnitedÂ
This weeks outing to the more salubrious parts of Nottingham was a visit to the picturesque council estate of Clifton as we took on West Bridgford United.
The line up was Nez "Jim Robinson" Smith in goal, with Matt Fisher and Matt Hindmarch at fullbacks, with Neale 'G' Roberts & Chalky as centre halves. Dale Blackburn & Pen Berry on the flanks. At this juncture I would like to point out that Pen Berry obviously got dressed in the dark as he turned up wearing his girlfriends jacket. Centre midfield was a new pairing of Mark "Ian Dowie" Jebbett and the outrageously gifted footballing talent of Michael Hart. Upfront was old man Grum & Jack Butler.
In the monsoon like conditions the Ams started off like the Arsenal "invincibles" with plenty of pace and movement and some slick passing.
It came as no surprise when we took the lead. Chalky winning the ball and feeding Dale who threaded a pass through the eye of a needle to Jack who calmly finished from a tight angle. At this point the Ams where in complete control, The back four looked solid and with Jebbo doing the ugly stuff in centre midfield this left me free to spray passes across the field. 10 minutes in the mighty Ams where 2-0 up, a good run from Jack resulted in him squaring the ball to me on the edge of the area, calmly assessing the situation, I played a killer ball in for Grum to score, the killer ball being a 50/50 challenge where Grum got the ball booted in his midriff to calmly stroke home.
2-0 up and playing against the wind, the Ams looked in no trouble, when 30 yards out Neale won the ball cleanly only for the ref to mistakenly think we were playing netball and award a free kick. The resulting free kick was then pinged into the top corner with Jim Robinson getting a hand on it but unluckily conceding.
Backs to the wall with there being a force 10 gale blowing into our faces, we battled hard and were undeterred by some recockulous refereeing decisions, in fact we managed to score another well worked goal with Jack crossing one in for Matt Hindmarch to force the ball over the line.
Half time came and with some words of wisdom from our imperious leader Adam Morris, we were full of heart and looked to seal the game. Morris warned us of the dangers of complacency and extolled the virtues of being switched on for the first 10 minutes. 5 minutes into the second half and West Bridgford pulled one back through a dubious penalty, to be fair the penalty was not in doubt as Chalky completely took out their rotund centre forward. What was in doubt was the fact that he was 5 yards offside and correctly flagged offside by Tom, only for the ref to ignore Tom as the bloke wasn't interfering ?!?!? Quite how you're not interfering when receiving the ball in the penalty box and trying to score was beyond my comprehension. The penalty was dispatched with poor Alan Dale having no chance.
We still kept on trying to play football though and carved out a couple of half chances with Jebbo supplying some inch perfect passes to Pen Berry and Jack respectively but all to no avail. Then came the turning point of the game, deep into our half their extra rotund midfielder was waddling through when Jebbo stepped in front and won the ball cleanly, Billy Bunter fell to the floor clutching his face and Jebbo was then warned about excessive use of the elbow.
The free kick came in and Jim Robinson gave a big shout for the ball, unfortunately he could not reach over Chalky, Neale and Matt Hindmarch and the ball bounced off Chalkys head for an unfortunate own goal.
At this point we were being flooded by West Bridgford attacks and it took some world class saves from Jim Robinson to keep us on equal terms. At the other end Jack came close with a good free kick but that was about it for our chances.
All in all not a bad point but if we are being critical it felt like two dropped after a fantastic first half performance. However there was an impressive debut from Dale, with good comeback games from Matt Hindmarch & Chalky.
MOM was Jebbo who had a very good game despite having to play centre midfield with a non-heading, non tackling partner
Report by Michael Hart