Shortwood United

First of all congratulations to the Reserves who battled through to the next round of the GFA with a hard fought game against our friends from Brimscombe by a solitary goal at Meadowbank last night..
Pete Smith has a good side there and I thought Ben Deakin had a particularly good game for them - and I'm not just saying that coz dad Terry is a friend of mine...
Brimmo certainly had the best of the opening stages and created the better chances but Wood battled well and by half time we were doing better and created chances of our own. The second half was a real end to end thriller and despite all the chances it was only going to be one goal either way that settled it and it was the Wood that nicked it. In the 66 minute Ryan Thwaite swung over a free kick and Craig Mills header was blocked but he reacted the quickest to put the ball home. Brian managed to capture the goal perfectly on camera and the pictures are uploaded on the website...
Talking of Brimscombe the Reserves travel there for a league game on Tuesday evening when the firsts are at home to Clevedon and I dare say another tight game will ensue...
Now watch the scoreline come in as 7-5 like the Arsenal last night! I notice Bevan's Banker didn't predict that one - now that would have been worth it Jody... I didn't bother checking the scoreline after I was told the Gunners were 0-4 down...saw it on Sky Sports this morning tho. Remarkable!!! Funny it was Reading after our come back against the Scours Lane boys...

And so to Hungerford on Monday for what was our 3rd away game in 5 days and if any body had offered me 2 wins out of 3 I would have taken it as none of them were easy. Fair play to the lads after the exertions of Saturday and with only 1 day of rest I thought we battled well and although it is only personal opinion I thought we looked the fitter and stronger side at the end. I think it is highly likely that the Management will talk about the disappointing goals we conceded and I have been championing our defence all season and am certainly not going to change that now. The fact that the back four players and Tom have picked up more moms than everyone else speaks volumes to me. The only comment I will make is that if Jake Parrott has ever hada better game for this club then please tell me coz I reckon I wasn't there!

Now I'm afraid I have to wonder what was going on in the 80th minute! I used to run the line and it is a difficult job and I would actually argue that it is a harder job then reffing! I have done both and speak from experience. The assistant has to be level and concentrate the whole time - he has to have the ability to look along the line and to the half way line at the same time to judge exactly where a player is when the ball is played when judging offside. You get goals like Man U's winner at Chelsea where the linesman is looking through a ruck of players and the movement of the forward is so quick ....
Some refs want the lino to call fouls - others tell em to keep out of it! The crowd don't know and the poor assistant gets stick if he doesn't flag for what appears to be a blatant foul...
And they make mistakes - players do, refs do, EVEN me (no really!)

But....

As much as I have tried, and tried, and tried some more I cannot find a valid reason why the assistant failed to see that Ross's header was over the line! We are not talking 1966 here! The inside of the side netting bulged, the keeper told me he was on the line and stretched behind him to claw the ball away. Opinions vary between 3 ft and 4 feet over. Regretably, he does not have the excuse he wasn't level - he was, or that his view was obstructed - it wasn't... Plus the reaction of both sets of players might have given him a clue.
It was a cruel blow considering what a difference a goal at that time might have made (see Reading above..)
It was also a cruel blow to Ross as well as the lad needs the confidence that goal would have given him as much as I need to lose a stone in weight! Alright Moons - 2 stones!!

Hey ho we move on...

Saturday both sides are away! The firsts travel to North Leigh for a league game and I hope the entrance to the ground sihn is a little more visible than the last time I drove past the ground without spotting it. The Ressies are away at Wantage in the Reseerve League Cup.
Tuesday the firsts have a home game - yes really - when they take on Clevedon, while the Ressies travel to Brimmo for a league game. Shame - after last night I would really have liked to see part two of our battle against Smithy and Triggers boys...

And that is it gentle readers....