Match Report

Derby Ams (1) v Selston (1)

Date: 13/08/08
Team: 1sts
Match Type: League
Venue: Home
Opposition: Selston

Can anyone take a penalty against Butters???

With a change of formation from our usual 3-5-2, we opted for a more containing 4-1-4-1. Meaning newly found manager for the reserves, Elliott at left back and Dibbsy was asked to play right back (behind Grants mum). In the middle and starting to form a partnership was captain Morris and Brenty, who cant drink to save his life! In the holding role was Swainey, sporting his latest sport related injury of serious Playstation 3 friction burn. In front of him we had the Singo and the Colley. Marshall was selected right wing and Kelvin (see bonk of the match) selected on the left. Upfront by himself was Broughton.

A lot was made of Selston and how they walked the league last season and in doing so scored on average six goals a game, barely conceding in the process. And to be honest I can see why. They are a good young team with a good following, including the four old men behind the goal giving our keeper some aggravation in the second half. Selstons bad points are that they turned up to the game expecting to steam roller us and snag a comfortable mid-week win. Infact quite the opposite. THEY were lucky to get a point!

Selston dominated possession pretty much through-out the game but did very little with it. In the first half there were no real scares other than Brent who was progressively becoming more injured as the minutes rolled by.

Twenty minutes into the first half and a free kick was awarded for yet another foul conceded by a Selston defender. Morris lined up to take it left footed forcing the wall to cover the keepers near post. Swain saw this and after a slight discussion with captain Morris played a five yard ball square for Morris to latch onto and dispatch right footed into the bottom corner. 1-0.

Some more interchanging play between there wingers and their decent striker later, and the Selston winger was through one-on-one with the en-rushing Butters. Obviously not knowing who he was dealing with their striker opted for the lob (our keepers strongest point) and the ball was saved comfortably.

The rest of the half fizzled out with not a lot happening.

At half time Dave was forced into swapping Brent for Mark due to injury. He calmed us all down and pointed out that the midfield were sitting too deep and practically inviting them onto us and if we pushed further up the field we would give more room for the likes of Swainey to get on the ball and we could get our game going.

With us now starting to catch onto the Selston plan of kick when the officials not looking we knew that football could be the only way to better the ‘talents’ of Selston would be to play football around them and expect a knee high challenge at any time.

Early in the second half, a long ball into the path of their better striker saw Elliott chasing the ball towards his own goal. He made a challenge, didn’t get the ball (but didn’t get the player either) and their striker stumbled to the ground for a soft penalty to be awarded. After the player had ‘recovered’ from this horrific challenge he got up and looked in horror as his mate put the ball onto the spot. Now, I’ve never taken a penalty, nor am I likely to in the near future, but I watched World Cup 94 and Roberto Baggio must be holding his sides together after what can only be described as their most unpleasant player making himself look rather stupid after making his first concern on the resulting penalty kick power, second must have been his celebration which I’m guessing he would have been practising all summer long, and last by some distance precision. The ball crashed off the bar and over and for the second week running, Butters successfully defended another penalty.

Twenty minutes from time and they seemed to raise their game in search of that all illusive goal and we were on the back foot. What little chances we had were breakaways most notably through Sam who saw more right wing movement than David Cameron on a log flume, Tom was holding the ball up well and even Colley was box-to-box running trying to get up in support and also get back and defend.

Not long after our keeper had kept us in the game when their good striker bundled through one-on-one and shot low into the bottom corner, the ball would have gone in if it weren’t for the agility of our keeper who stuck out his right hand, clipping the ball with his finger nail and watched as the ball glanced just wide of the post forcing the best save of the game with no more than fifteen minutes on the clock.

With no more than ten on the clock substitutions were made and Aidan replaced Kelvin to give us more pace and an outball for when our backs were against the wall (and they were in places), Jebbo came on at right back and Dibbsy switched to left back.

Plenty of defending later, we seemed to infuriate them with our willingness to not cave in and roll over, with the defense keeping their shots from outside the box. What seemed like their fifty-eighth corner of the game came in and the second smallest player on the pitch rose highest and headed into the far corner of the goal. It was as if all the life out of the Mighty Ams had been sucked out of us by Henry the Hoover, this was made doubly crushing by the fact that there was less than five minutes left on the clock. 1-1.

This week Mark is definatley worth a mention as he came on in the second half and did a very good job of marking their good striker out of the game and not putting a foot wrong in a tense 45 minutes. Also Dibbsy made his first start to the season in an unfamiliar role and probably wont play better than he did having a very good game at right back.

MOTM - Tom Broughton - a pretty unanimous decision really. Despite getting kicked lots and lots and lots, he ran his socks off won almost all of the headers he went for and lead from the front.

BONK of the match - Kelvin - with the ball at his feet, back to goal he did the by now infamous step over and completely sold his man. Tearing down the left flank he was quickly once again confronted by the same man he had just ‘sold’ only to once again do the same step over and once again leave his man for dead. Continuing with his mazy run he was once again set upon by the same defender as previous. This time the step over didn’t work and the ball was cleared. How, I hear you ask can someone be set upon by the same person three times in one run after hailing him a taxi twice? Answer - Kelvin has the acceleration of the hour hand on a clock