Match report: 9th February
Before the match report starts it should be officially noted that all good things must come to an end and Dave Haberfield has slipped back to his old ways of turning up late to the match (who had their money on this week?!!!)
Anyway, back to the matter in hand – the match……..
The game started with Toby in goal, Harry and Liam in defence, Sam and Oly H taking control of midfield, Cody and Ollie A upfront with Josh and Kyran on the invisible bench.
Juniors started well, putting the Vikings goal under pressure right from the off - Cody had a great shot saved by the mud! Vikings returned the pressure forcing Toby to come out of his box to tackle one of the Vikings players (I wish he wouldn’t do this- it always makes me nervous!) The ball was then passed up the pitch with Oly H and Cody taking control and playing some lovely passing football, but the Vikings defence meant business and weren’t letting them get near the goal. The Vikings return the pressure- luckily Harry and Liam were just as up for the challenge as the Vikings defence and clear the ball to Oly H who played a great ball up the pitch to Cody who shoots but this time the keeper, not the mud, saved it.
At this point the match reporter along with the other spectators was distracted by a certain Mr Haberfield spreading malicious rumours about the size of Oly Hayden’s feet- Tim confirmed that Oly does not have size 7 feet!
Now that this little rumour was cleared up we could focus on the game again and despite the bunching up from Juniors (were they all getting a little bit cold at this point and after a bit of body heat?), Sam and Cody continued to pressurise the Vikings goal but the ball just didn’t seem to want to go in……… was it going to be one of those days?
Sam and Harry subbed with Josh and Kyran. Cody out of nowhere made a cracking turn followed by a brilliant shot saved by a Viking player- I’m sure any professional footballer would have been proud of this effort on goal!
Play continued with Liam and Josh being strong in defence and all of the Juniors players working well as a team.
Half time 0-0- far more entertaining than the score line suggests.
Half time chat from the side-line…….. Where are the half time bacon butties?!! Has Simon actually fallen asleep running the line? and, have you seen the David Beckham advert?????? (Ok, that last one wasn’t actually discussed but ladies trust me- it’s worth watching…….. in slow motion!)
The second half starts with Cody and Oly H taking their turn as subs- just as Dave informs the crowd that an early goal is what is needed, Sam slots one past the keeper with his left foot! 1-0 (No Dave, you can’t take the credit for that goal!)
Juniors continue to keep up the pressure on the Vikings goal with a fantastic shot on goal by Ollie A outside the box being saved by the keeper.
I have to admit that I didn’t actually see what happened next as Sue Tiley was rabbiting on about something but I am reliably informed by Tim and Paul that Ollie A scored with his left foot (bit of a theme emerging here!) 2-0. I did try and tell Sue that I had to concentrate on this official and very important match report but we all know what she’s like so the rest of the report is quite vague! (It had nothing to do with my hands being too cold to write anything!)
Juniors continued to fire shots at the goal, sending them onto the posts, side net and virtually everywhere apart from over the line and then the comedy moment of the game happened…… a shot was made which flew over the cross bar and smacked poor Emmanuel( who warming up with his team) in the face. To his credit, Emmanuel didn’t even flinch and carried on like the true professional……… but the second team were swiftly moved from warming up behind the goal! Note to the boy who sent the shot over the goal- not your own team mates!!!!
Ollie A and Liam off- Cody and Oly H come on, along with the Vikings lines man (sorry- assistant referee) who was obviously getting bored at this point and wanted a bit of ‘on the pitch’ action!
More shots were made on goal which whipped the crowd up into a frenzy (there were lots of oohs and aahs coming from the left of me, and lots of ‘ the shirts are looking dirty’ from the right hand side) and following an great pass from Oly H, Kyran shoots and scores (was this also a left footed shot?) 3-0.
Priory Vikings weren’t going to make this an easy victory for us though and piled on the pressure from the restart- with Harry making some good challenges in defence. Please can someone tell me what a ‘scooper’ is, because apparently Cody tried one in the dying minutes of the second half!
Final score 3-0. A very well deserved victory and a great game of football to watch. (I would have said it was just like watching Brazil but following the mid-week England victory this phrase just doesn’t seem the same anymore!)

Man of the Match- Liam- as solid as ever in defence.
On a serious note - I would like to ask for an investigation into the very crime of bribing a team coach into writing match reports – as I’m not one to gossip but I’m sure that I overheard a certain Jo Bean offering Julian a chocolate doughnut to write the match report for the second match for her!!!!!!!