Round 12 O35 Div 1 Reserves – North Sydney 1 Kissing Point 2 (21 Jun)

It was an early start for North Sydney Council, for it was declared that 7am was pitch inspection time. As the Rangers white 4×4 pulled up at the ground, a couple of Lorikeets circled overhead, the ching ching of the bells, a reminder of the boats gently rocking in the harbour, could be heard in the distance, the sound quickly carried away on the breeze. As the ranger approached pitch no. 2 his thoughts turned to the strange remark his wife made as they were getting into bed last night, what did she mean by it, did she know, never mind that would have to wait, he had another job in hand. He strode confidently to the centre of the field, 100 lives were affected by the decision he was about to make, Oh the power of it. He dialed the number pre-set into his phone, a gruff voice answered, the ranger only uttered two words before hanging up.

 

GAME ON

 

The ressies were straight off the back of humiliating West Pymble 2-0 at their own Manor, inflicting their first defeat in 45 outings, confidence was high, as well it might be, for Murray was back.

 

In the first real attack of the game Scud came very close forcing a great save from their keeper tipping his roundhouse kick from a crossed ball over the bar, Scud’s effort much better than the crap he was attempting before the game, Oh well, bad dress rehearsal and all that…. Iain was confident in net and shouting orders at his defence when they displeased him, it was obviously a mistake to let them know we had a Scottish keeper so early in the game. Not even midway through the first half and player manager Armstrong tried to demonstrate the skill and flair that has not made us famous this season or any other, he backheeled it to Adam midway in his own half, the opposing striker latched onto it like a greyhound chasing a 3 legged rabbit and hit a speculative 30 yarder that was never going to go in. Or was it. Iain showing the goalkeeping form that has made his countrymen famous realized half a second later he was in a lot of trouble, froze to the spot except for his head that tilted back to watch the bail sail over his head and into the net. 1-0 down.

 

In a game that pleased the crowd that had stayed at home, North Sydney eventually got back into the game after an impressive run down the right, Murray crossed with pin-point perfection for Neil Gross to slide in with perfect timing and force the ball into the back of the net with his RIGHT foot. 1-1 Heady stuff indeed.

 

Later in the game Iain and Tad managed to emulate Basil Fawlty and Manuel whilst trying to deal with a harmless ball in the area, the end result being Iain pushing the ball to the oncoming striker who said ‘thank you very much gentlemen, very generous, don’t mind if I do’ & smashed the ball into the net 2-1 down.

 

With 20 minutes to go Manager Armstrong abdicated responsibility to Chalky by asking me to do the subs for the last 20 minutes if we needed any more changes. I promptly called a press conference to announce my new position as ‘caretaker manager’ The press asked the obvious questions, ‘Did I think Manager Armstrong had done a good job’ naturally I said he performed to the best of his ability but mistakes had been made. ‘Did I think Armstrong had suffered from his dual role as player manager’ I replied that after seeing him play for the past five minutes I realized it wasn’t the fact that he wasn’t on the sidelines that was the issue, it was the fact that he was on the pitch that was of greater concern! Then the strange looking journalist from Sydney Uni with the hair line receding faster than an Italian front line in a World War asked what changes I would make and where I could make a difference. I replied that I thought it would be wrong to meddle too much with the team that he had already put out however I would be working intensively with the 1^st team over the next and final 15 minutes of my reign to change some things and make them a more cohesive unit that scored more and conceded less. I’d let history be the judge of my achievements.

 

Anyway back to the game, we produced some good work especially down the right hand side, Murray and (I think) Neil providing quality crosses from the right, Scud managed to miss a sitter from a yard out, we should have put more pressure on their keeper from our long throws to restrict the keepers movement but at the end of the day it’s all academic as the ref called time and the game was lost. Graeme was vocal of his condemnation of the performance but had every right to be as it was pretty poor especially after last weeks ‘Lord Mayor’s show’ Disappointing as we could have beat this side but as Coxy might say ‘the season starts again next weekend’

 

Sorry for all the bullsh!t but to be honest I watched 4 games at Primrose this weekend and can’t really remember many of the details now! On the positive side I’m confusing this match with 3 others where we scored 14 goals and conceded 1, on the negative side 2 of the games were girls, go figure.

 

MAN & MUGS

 

No MAN today as crap performance in most respects

Dual MUGS go to the aforementioned Iain and Tad, well deserved boys, well done!!

 

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