Drew 0-0
Scorers: N/A
MoM: James Blackburn
DoD: not awarded
With thanks to team sponsor MFri
No nil all bore draw this; rather a nil all win to The 11 Friars who travelled to Gillingham to face their 14, most of whom were youngsters apart from a couple of wizened dads. Our midfield line averaged 67 years (Jonesy, Hurlow, Andrews & Barton) against theirs in their mid 20s. Indeed our whole team averaged over 56 years – yes I know we should get out more!
So Jonesy strategically played a 4-4-2 formation from the start & the defence played out of their socks, marshalled as ever by Trigger, some of whose saves were what you would see on a circus hi-wire. In front of him Councillor Alex, James Blackburn, Jamie Harris, & Geoff Philpott with the latter saving one on the line – all held out heroically. There was only one Anchs PC in the first half but numerous ones in the second.
Hayward & Aikin up front did not get much ball except for the odd brief foray or huge hit from Ricketts to forlornly latch onto so they needed to get back into defence.
The Anchs goalkeeper did not have to make on save & with just 2 minutes left he was subbed off – something they possibly ought to have done earlier; Friars then ran the clock down with the score 0-0 !
Thanks to:- Phil Dowling (see pic) who, his body in bad repair, has come to support all our games this season; and Harris Blackburn, 7 year old son of MoM James who came to support. Street-wise he certainly is (must be his dad!) pulling us up (“hey up-don’t forget I’m here!”) on hearing some colourful exhortations at half-time.
MATCH REPORTS – for those readers & writers who have noticed their match reports come to a grinding halt in mid sentence it appears that there is an unannounced word limit this season – obviously to stop all the fluffy waffle of The Friars’ reports – after comments by past club chairmen! So the Scribbler helpfully suggests that aspiring scribblers limit their offerings to approx. 350 words or 1950 characters. The Dear Diary reports of the Ladies 2s are the best examples of clarity, humour & readability!
Squad: John Aikin, Bert Andrews, Mike Barton, James Blackburn, Jamie Harris, Geordie Hayward, Brian Hurlow, Tony Jones (C), Sir Geoff Philpott, Cllr Alex Ricketts, Simon Triggs (GK),
