Squad:

 

 
Peter E
Jim
Kevin
Grant
Richie
Ian
George
Paul
Tony O
Gordon

 

Well I generally like to think of myself as a glass half full type, there’s normally a positive to be taken from most situations but as I begin the story of last night I am struggling to find one.

 

The Car Park

 

This started the evening off a treat, it was chaotic, the general idea seemed to be Mr or Mrs driver of a car, way too big for me to manoeuvre, dropping off respective offspring, and then just stopping in the same space and not making eye contact with anyone actually trying to park (mainly disgruntled Strollers busting for the loo).

 

The Coin Toss

 

Now I always thought that the done thing was for the away captain to be given the honour of calling heads or tails, so as the sacred coin was flipped in to the air I duly made my call, this was quickly followed by my opposite number also calling and making an identical call to my own (this could be interesting I surmised). Now this coin seemed to want to join in the fun as it landed on its side wedged in the luxurious plastic turf. Our man in charge of proceedings picked up his shiny precious showed me one side and pronounced tails, we had both called heads, this was starting to seem a little ominous. Mind you not as bad as the time I was asked which hand is the twig in as a way to make that all too vital decision.

 

The Goal that Never Was

 

We thought we had deservedly gone ahead as Richie smashed a great hit in to what we believed to be the top corner, our referee signalled goal and we began to take our positions for the restart. A couple of the home side believed that the ball had entered in via the side netting, George to his great credit agreed with this point of view, and although no gap where the netting was loose could be found our man with the whistle changed his mind stating “well if everyone is happy no goal”. I never realised that decisions could be made by committee, having said that George was one hundred percent right in calling a no goal and not one member of our team questioned the reversal of the original award of a goal: it would not be right to be the beneficiary of such an error, unfortunately for us though it appears the correct call was the first one. For me there are two issues, firstly the match official should be up with play and be in a position to make the right call and second, goal frames and nets should be inspected before kick off to ensure this sort of outcome does not happen.

 

The Match

 

We had started brightly, we should have been leading and it would have made such a difference, two first half goals turned the whole game around, both good finishes with the second avoidable after a miss placed pass. We struck the goalpost on numerous occasions, one of the home players thought the esteemed uprights were their man of the match, we had plenty of chances but just couldn’t do that most vital thing of finding the back of the net.

 

After the Final Whistle

 

Those watching were convinced Richie’s effort should have counted, thanks to everyone for making the journey over including Gordon for travelling and not getting any game time but for his invaluable support and encouragement on the side line. Also to Mark for coming to support. Another disappointing result and to be honest a performance that could have been better, although I firmly believe we should have got something out of it; we were scrappy and lacked a bit of composure at times. With the current format of Monday night it is going to be difficult to iron out these little things that will improve us but I am positive ( there we go) that we will.

 

Finally a big thanks to Whitstable for their hospitality.