Date: Saturday 22nd October – 2pm KO
Starting Line-up: Matt Turner (C), Chris Revill (deceased), Mark Dallamore, Nathan Adabadze, James Ingle, Henry Neville, Chris Lendrum, Luke Haddon, Seb Brain, Paul May, Jordan Griffith
Sub: John Glenn
With the club undergoing a goalkeeping crisis of epic proportions, it was left to skipper Turner to place himself between the sticks. On a barren, concrete-hard pitch, a bright start under an adventurous and new-fangled 3-5-2 saw Cubo pen SEL back in their own half, with Paul and Jordan looking especially dangerous playing off the shoulders of the SEL defence. Only some dubious linesman-ship kept the scores level.
However, the main incident in the game came barely 10 minutes in to the first half. Excluding Dallamore, the diminutive back line of Revill and Adabadze naturally struggled under high balls and against the monstrous SEL strike-duo. With one clearance bouncing over Revill, a last-ditch goal saving tackle from the aforementioned ended audibly with a loud snap. Unfortunately it wasn’t a firework let off by some local wildlife; but Chris’ tibula. An anxious 40 minute wait for the ambulance ensued, with full credit awarded to physio-on-the-spot Lenny for keeping Chris from enduring too much discomfort. A team effort was then needed to move Chris to the safety of the bag pile at the side of the pitch. With the half injured Glenn replacing Revill, the remainder of the half was played out in naturally cagey circumstances with neither side really threatening.
When the ambulance finally did arrive, the driver sensibly eschewed parking ANYWHERE ELSE and elected the pitch to settle upon, delaying the game by a further 30 minutes at half time.
With the second half finally underway, Cubo could not seem to build any momentum, and on the hard pitch it was proving difficult to get the ball to Luke and Seb’s feet on the wings. With both midfields bypassed by the aerial battle, a lucky bounce and unlucky deflection against Dallamore ended with the ball ricocheting past the despairing gloves of Turner. As Cubo chased the game, openings, err, opened up and the SEL right winger cut inside and unleashed a fierce drive through the defence, past the unsighted Turner to make it 2-0 to the baddies. Utilising the fact the SEL 1st XI had no fixture, some astute substitutions were made by the SEL coach and the game was put beyond Cubo’s reach with 10 minutes to go by another firm strike from outside the box.
Some positives can be taken however with an excellent debut from Nathan Adebadze and some strong, direct running from second debutant Paul May who looked to dovetail well with Jordan on several occasions. Thanks must also go to the SEL coach, Jose, who lent us some footballs, called the ambulance, provided Chris with company and blankets and general all-round good lad behaviour.
Thanks to Turns for donning the gloves and best wishes and a speedy recovery to Chris.
Man of the Match: TBC
AFC Cubo 