Spelthorne A

The half time score tells it all really Denne (2), Dave Ferguson (1) and Adrian Sheehan (1) took full advantage of Meadhurst's superior fitness in the first half. Jack had warned in the prematch talk that Spellthorne have some good players and will cause trouble if we let them. So it turned out, Meadhurst had an attack of passing the ball anywhere except to their own team and Spellthorne were gifted the pressure that let them score two goals and miss a penalty. At 4-2 it could have gone badly but Andy Lee settled it with a header to Meadhurst's relief.

Meadhurst dominated the game but contrived to be 3-0 down with 10 minutes left. The exact reasons have faded from my increasingly senile memory, but its certainly true that we never looked like scoring a goal before Christmas ....... 2005 and realising this a nervous Spelthorne became increasingly confident. Still it only takes a few seconds to turn it all round. A fine strike by Dogga from outside the box started it, followed by a second shortly after leaving Spelthorne very anxious. Meadhurst broke away from a Spelthorne cornerkick with 10 seconds left. Dogga tried to shoot from 35 yards but miss hit and the ball rolled gently to the Spelthorne Keeper who bent down to pick it up ... and missed .... the ball crawled over the goal-line as the final whistle blew. Some felt that Meadhurst were lucky but given the way things were going for Spelthorne if the final whistle had gone 5 minutes later we would have been 10 -3 winners. Still we were very grateful for the 3-3 draw and for Dogga's hat trick jug in the bar.

An 8-0 win against Spelthorne was not as one sided as it sounds but we did deserve to win

Something strange is happening to the Vets. We had 11 players waiting in the Spelthorne car park at 10am. Come back Phil Benion and Ian Roberts who excelled at being just in time, all is forgiven. Possibly the word had got out that we were looking for a goalkeeper (Glenbo - kids party, Wolfie – work, Pikey - car boot sale !?) and nobody wanted to be the last to arrive. The remaining two (Ferguson and Dixon) were safe from this fate, albeit for different reasons. Dave, because Gary would sulk and Mike for his display in goal at BA - a strategic triumph, he will never be asked to go in goal again. Of the rest, Jack was the last to arrive and duly selected himself as keeper – which, as it turned out, certainly helped to make a game of it.

Actually Mike had an excuse for being late. Although, last week, everyone had decided to meet at Spelthorne, Mike had lost the clarity of this vision in the meantime. Some vestige of memory must have remained since he phoned the club to see if anyone was there, ascertained that no one was, but decided to meet himself there anyway and consequently made himself late – presumably waiting for himself to turn up. The manager wasn’t impressed (although it’s a better excuse than car boot sales) and asked him to serve a stint as first half linesman.

If the reader thinks its taking a long time to get to the football that’s because it wasn’t that memorable. We played well enough and were in no danger of losing. Indeed as soon as Robin shot through a crowd of legs past an unsighted keeper it should have been easy enough - despite Jack conceding them an equaliser shortly after. 1-1 at half time.

Robin took the gloves for the second half and had even less to do than Jack. Nevertheless we struggled to really impose ourselves for the first 20 mins. The greater mobility of the Meadhurst players (Martin had been substituted) eventually told as we made good progress down both wings especially the right where Rob Sage and Ian Bolter had plenty of action. Dave and Roy were less frequent but more deadly raiders down the left, as first Dave got behind the defence and cut the ball back to Roy to score and then Roy made a similar run for Don to score from close range. Fortunate that is was close range as Don mis-hit it and it trickled over the line past a completely wrong footed keeper. Don’s second of the season. A range of shots from Don, Dave, Gary and Dick never looked like adding to the score and their ref blew the whistle a little early to avoid further embarrassment all round.

A pleasant enough outing and always a pleasure to beat the local rivals - rounded off nicely by Cuzzy releasing some Vets funds for beer to wash down the Spelthorne sausages after the game.

Send mail to jack.frost@DELETETHISBIThemscott.net with questions or comments about this web site. Last modified: November 27, 2004

Send mail to jack.frost@DELETETHISBIThemscott.net with questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified: November 27, 2004