Won 2-0
Scorers: John Aikin (2)
MoM: Jamie Harris
DoD: Brian Hurlow for his Albanian hangover
With thanks to team sponsor MFri
With the autumn sun beating down The Friars welcomed an impressive looking Highwaymens’ team looking to rob the home team’s points.
With John Aikin’s heel injury from last week miraculously healed by his quack saying there was nothing wrong we looked forward to him justifying his match fee.
Both teams started brightly game with stamina being key. With vice captain Hurlow back from his Albanian jaunts & cheap vino, & Mike Barton from testing the culinary delights of India fitness was thus important.
Young Will Patinson once again showed his commitment & pace setting up opportunities throughout.
A couple of Friars short corners went awry before Aikin got back on his personal scoreboard with a clean strike – 1-0 to The Friars. However that lead felt tenuous as Blackheath piled on the pressure & Trigger in goal got value from his match fee as did the crowd watching who saw many balls despatched by him clean off the pitch. Geoff Philpott backed this up with some huge16 hit outs.
Into the second half & Blackheath began to get frustrated at their inability to score whether through the stout Canterbury defence or their at times wayward shot selection. Hayward beetling up & down the right wing was described by one Blackheath defender aged about 50 “as older than my gran & he shouldn’t be outrunning us” causing much mirth.
However it still felt an equaliser was coming & especially as a few Canterbury goal scoring opportunities went begging.
However deep in the second half left winger Bert Andrew, having a great game, slipped a nice pass for Aikin to score; 2-0. John announced that his hit ratio for open side shots was 20% so out of the 10 shots today he was back into “skill” territory rather than his anti-skill antics of last week though it’s about 2% on his much vaunted LBZ efforts!
The last mention must go the defence who were the real heroes of today – Barton, Biggles, Blackburn, Philpott & Harris marshalled by Triggs who also won his family fridge competition.