Drew 1-1
Scorers: Phil Dowling
MoM: Will Pattinson
DoD: Alex for his radar badly malfunctioning at PCs along with Brian for his new tackling technique.
With thanks to team sponsor MFri
Never say that your Friars Scribblers (yes there is more than one!) do not listen to their readers. One long standing reader of maturing years (not quite ready to drink in claret terms shall we say) hailed your writer in the street to say that he felt our reports were too long so this week we shall just report that we drew against Blackheath, however I am not responsible for what our editor might write below…… – being that I am only the office boy.
And onto the last home game of the season needing just a point to ensure that there is no chance of relegation.
The Friars started brightly with pressure being put on the Bexley keeper. This eventually paid off when a through ball to Hayward saw him for once pass it accurately across the D for Phil Dowling to neatly put away in a style reminiscent of times gone by so 1-0 to the home team.
Both teams seemingly had acres of space but they never used it in a creative fashion so whilst the game was close it never produced the spectacle that a few stalwart supporters had paid good money for. Though talking of spectacles Mr Hurlow has perfected a new tackle called the Friars Singular Collapse when quite literally “one” just collapses onto a member of the opposition a bit like Graham Carter used to out of a scene from Swan Lake.
The youngsters – The Two Wills (Hanys & Pattinson) and Oly Triggs in his first complete 70 minutes playing for the Friars were the only three Friars who seemed to be playing at full throttle. The 2 Wills played off each other really well and Trigger Junior made 2 cracking saves though old Biggles also made a great tackle staright out of the coaching manual.
Early in the second half Blackheath got their equaliser through a tangle of legs and that was about it really despite the numerous failed short corners that the Friars had – 11 at the latest count in the second half with no goal!
A few Friars are feeling the wear and tear of a tough season. Phil Dowling will just about see the season out with his blown cylinders and gasket but will his cambelt last one more game. Big Geoff has a nasty black eye when he fell over a flower pot last week (yes really!), Biggles is a bit ill, Hayward not(never) at full speed, Alex is fast running out of blue medical tape and Jamie has a livid scar above his eye where a hockey ball cannoned into him a month ago so some R & R is being looked forward to.
Happy Easter to our readers and to the man on his tractor – hope we haven’t kept you from your ploughing or pruning for too long – you know who you are!
A pic to round off the report from the Little and Large show as Oly Triggs has a word with Big Geoff about his black eye.
Squad: Mike Barton, James Blackburn, Phil Dowling, Will Hanys, Geordie Hayward, Brian Hurlow, Tony Jones (C), Tom Parkin, Will Pattinson, Sir Geoffrey Philpott, Alex Ricketts, Oly Triggs (GK), Chris Ward
