customising life

WPH 4-6 STA

Pretty exciting match to end our season, even though we lost.

I arrived late, with the score 4-2 in our favour. I saw some good chances upon my arrival go begging, but was mostly uninterested in the game as I was talking to Paul.

Scott was denied a blantant penalty as he was steamrolled by one of the many trucks in St. Andrew’s team.

They brought the score back to 4-3 with a crazy shot from the sideline, which dipped well over Ryan’s head. To our disbelief the scores were level minutes later, when James S. scored goal of the season from the 18 yard line, for the wrong side. I think he was trying to clear it for a corner, but instead slooted this again high and dipping over Ryan into the top near post.

At 4-4 things only got worse as we conceded an terribly easy goal from meters out after some slack defending. The final insult was when James went in hard taking out one of their players, earning himself a second yellow card, and was duly shown the red.

Good onya James!

STA went on to score yet another unbelievable goal, from a free kick miles from goal. Ryan must have been looking in the sun or something, as yet another shot dipped over his head into the top near post.

Crazy game to watch, but considering that Kenthurst beat Ryde 3-0, we would have been in for a tough game. Stupid GHFA, we should have been playing Ryde, but they re-scheduled. Bastards!

Oh well, another seasons end, and for the first time in years I’ve ended it with msot of my body intact. I’m going to give indoor a miss, at least for the first half of the season, so my shoulder can fully recover, and so can my knee, and so can my ankles, etc, etc.

Thanks to more good bad weather in Sydney, it’s been raining soo much, last weekend’s game was cancelled, leaving just the one game to decide who takes the glorious Pennant.

With a bit of luck we managed to score a game against Ryde, who have had some smashings this season, not least of all our 8-0 win. They seem to be unable to reliably get a team together, even when they just call up random mates (quite illegal) they still struggle.

If they are down on players again this weekend, I was seriously considering playing. I hope that just for once, common sense will take control of me.

So Phil informed me that Ryde in their characteristic inconsistency, showed up with less than a full team against Putney, and procedeed to have their arses handed back to them with a 9-0 thrashing.

With that big victory for Putney, we are pushed back into 5th place, where we will play for the Pennant; the crappy team playoff.

The guys should have a good chance of winning it again, as we did last year.

Although it’s disappointing to not have made the final four, I think the guys will feel better about the 1-1 draw on the weekend. For us to have stayed in 4th place, we would have needed an 8-0 win over Kenthurst.

The question was asked about whether or not I’d play in the playoffs, but after seeing even Kenthurst, who were a bit of a pushover first game, getting pretty physical, I’d say there’s buckleys chance that I’d be back to play. All the teams in this year’s competition are just too big for my weakened state. The only exception is Oakhill, but they are just too good.

KEN 1-1 WPH

With the result from the last game, played three weeks ago due to heavy rain, which has been sorely missed in Australia in recent years, we were sitting in fourth place, but only due to a two goal difference.

This was the last game of the scheduled season, so we had to win today, and by a decent margin to guarantee a place in the top four round robin. Pre-match confidence against Kenhurst led to suggestions of a formation change, to go searching for goals.

Somehow I managed to sleep in, missing the first 25 minutes of the first half, and I was informed that we were dominating until letting in an easy one-on-one goal for Kenthurst, the product of some bad ball-watching.

All in all it was a pretty scrappy game, one of those games where the ball just doesn’t seem to come off anyone’s boot nicely. I watched Phil miss a great chance towards the end of the half. After receiving a good ball and running wide of the penalty spot, he tried to kick the ball with the foot that was opposite to his stride, and towards the near post. Unfortunately the ball bobbled and came off his shin.

It drew a lot of criticism from the bench, who felt he should have taken a touch and tried to blast it past the keeper. But it’s what I would have done, and if he’d hit it properly, the keeper would have been beaten, because he was not expecting the early shot. That’s the difference between most players on the team, and a real goal-scorer like Phil.

The second half was mostly our ball game, but that doesn’t mean we really had the ball. Like the first half, no-one seemed to be able to keep the ball under control. In fairness it has been three weeks since they played, and it’s not like I made any contribution to the game from the sideline. I really wish I could have though.

Phil missed another difficult chance, taken on the half-volley from a cross. It drew a great save, and would have been a ripper goal to add to his eight goals thus far. Scott was probably guilty of the easiest chance gone begging, when he had some much time in front of goal, but seemed unsure as to whether the game was still in play.

Finally as time seemed to draw to a close, James made a great run from the left of defence, beating a couple of players on the way. He wasn’t able to make much of the run in the end, but won a corner (another corner, we had almost 20 I think). He then provided the initial cross, which was rebuffed by Kenthurst, but then put in a second cross, the was met by Dan Fisher, who had his first kid just the other day (Congrats!), to bring us level.

With no more time to grab a second goal, we will just have to wait to see how the Putney and Ryde pairing goes. If Ryde can get a full team, we might be in luck. But Putney only need a one nil win to take fourth place from us.

STU 1-0 WPH

Sorry guys, another game I missed. This time my excuse was better, I was in Hawaii.