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| Why did I volunteer as manager? | I don't think they are coming | I'll just pass the ball to myself |
25/02/2000 - 20:00 : Attendance 6
Someone once said 'Seven days is a long time in football' (or was that politics?). I think the same person may have said 'It's a funny old game'. Either way, in Alltraders case both seem to be true. Last week, we had the luxury of six players to choose from. This week, there was no Warren Fiveash who was lost to 'flu, and we only just managed to grab Sal as he was about to go home with his children after an earlier training session. With Tim just arriving from Turkey following several 'near-death' experiences during the Istanbul Taxi ride from Hell (that's another story), this was not the best of preparation for an all-important qualifying clash.
Things were looking tense with only Paul, Kevin and Tim on the pitch limbering up. Jamie had yet to arrive as usual, and Sal had to get home and back to the Leisure centre in under five minutes.
Sadly Alltraders league position remained fifth even though they had won last week. Global Financial were positioned sixth and poised to make a challenge for a qualifying place. It is estimated that a further seven points are required from the remaining four Alltraders games to ensure qualification, so a win tonight was essential to keep Global Financial out of the running.
Now one minute to kickoff, and no sign of Sal or Jamie. Alltraders continued to look anxiously to the tunnel as the referee asked how we wanted to proceed - either throw the game and lose the points and two goals, or start the game with just three players and hope Sal and Jamie eventually turned up, and potentially lose by a much larger scoreline if they didn't. After a lot of nail biting and frowning from Paul, the decision was taken to go ahead and hope for the best...
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| Why did I volunteer as manager? | I don't think they are coming | I'll just pass the ball to myself |
Just as the ref was about to blow the whistle for the start of the game, Sal came 'running' around the corner to take up a position of stand-in goalkeeper. Sadly there was still no sign of Jamie, so we had to start the game with just the four players. The opposition looked raring to get their teeth into this depleted Alltraders side, and gathered around for the attack as Kevin started the game.
Needless to say Alltraders were forced to defend and had to cover every inch of their half of the field to try and cover the space filled by their extra man. For a side of Alltraders age (averaging 40 without Jamie and Warren) this was a real lung-stretching exercise and called for every ounce of strength they had.
The plan went well, the opposition becoming increasing frustrated by Alltraders rugged determination. On the occasions that they did break through, the final shot either hit the woodwork or was covered well by Sal.
About half way through the first half, Sal pushed the ball out of the area to Tim Leader who looked up to find that all of the Global Financial team had pushed forward into attack. With a move somewhat akin to 'the charge of the Light Brigade', Alltraders surged forward catching their opposition completely unawares. Kevin led the advance with Tim and Paul overlapping on the two wings. With the opposition now finding themselves under a rare attack, they retreated to cover Kevin's run now leaving Paul unmarked on the right. This was an extremely dangerous move in that any failure would leave Alltraders goal completely undefended. Nevertheless, Kevin waited for his moment to push the ball into Paul's path who's quick strike skimmed under the body of the 'keeper into the to put Alltraders one goal up well against the run of play.
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| Tim Defends | Paul
is put through on the counter-attack |
... and hits the target! |
With the first half now beckoning, Alltraders knew that they had to defend this lead with everything they had until the break before they could try and get some more air in their lungs and attempt to recover for the second half.
With seconds of the half remaining, Global were very unlucky not to equalise when an attacker found some space to hit a blistering shot out of the reach of Sal, only to be denied by the crash of the ball against the crossbar...
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| More
shots rain on the Alltraders goal |
An
opposition attacker lines up his shot |
The
blurred image of the ball as it bounces off the crossbar at 90 miles per hour |
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| Kevin battles on | The ref blows for half-time |
The game restarted with a Global Financial kick. The pace of the opposition attacks increased during the second half as they tried to wear Alltraders down. Their approach work was patient, with crossfield passing that stretched Alltraders one way then the other. Tim even had to resort to the 'untied shoelace trick' to get the game stopped for a few seconds to tie it back up again and try and get some energy back to avoid passing out from exhaustion.
Just as it looked like there was no way through for Global, a hopefull long strike from an attacker firstly went under Paul's feet, then skimmed between Tim's legs before finally going under Sal's body hitting the onion bag to level the scoring. This goal was like a knife through the heart - for all of Alltraders solid battling the opposition had finally found a way through. With Alltraders looking visibly wiped out, there was now a real danger of the flood gates opening.
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| A blast from distance ... | ...
skims under Sal's body as the opposition celebrate |
The opposition continued to push hard on the Alltraders goal. Fortunately Sal was having another solid game between the sticks and covered each shot that they had on target. Alltraders were having to resort to slamming the ball upfield to try and kill time and hopefully hang on for the draw.
During a rare lapse of concentration, the opposition 'last man' lost possesion to Kevin who found himself completely clear on goal. With all the time in the world to pick his spot, he launched a screemer of a shot that flew past the goalkeeper, but sadly also the goal. This was Alltraders only real chance of the half so far and it should have been converted. Now it was back to hanging on for our lives...
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| The
camera behind the goal picks up the start of Kevin's run |
Clean through - surely he can't miss? | Past the 'keeper, and the goal! |
With Kevin now effectively out of the game, the Goalkeeper launched his kick back upfield where four opposition players were covered by just Tim and Paul at the back for Alltraders. With a four-on-two move, Global Financial should have punished Alltraders with one final blow, but a mixture of dogged Alltraders resistance and assured goalkeeping from Sal, the move came to nothing.
Amazingly, the opposition failed to cover Kevin who was still unmarked in an attacking position from the previous failed move. Sal quickly spotted him after frantic calls from Paul, and slammed his kick straight into his path. Now fearing a last-gasp goal from Alltraders, the opposition sprinted back cutting off Kevin's approach pushing him further wide down toward the by-line. However, Kevin battled on and somehow found the space to hit a solid shot toward the goal. The 'keeper watched in horror as the ball seemed to defy the laws of geometry as it bent and dipped past him into the far netting.
There seemed to be a kind of 'satellite delay' before everyone on the pitch had realised what had happened. As soon as it was noticed that the ball was actually resting in the back of the net, the opposition defenders sunk to the knees in despair as the rest of the Alltraders team screams of delight could be heard in Brighton.
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| Tim on the ball | Kevin's
shot defies the laws of Geometry |
... as it slams against the back of the net |
With just thirty seconds left to defend their lead, Alltraders finally got the stroke of luck they needed - Jamie actually arrived for the game! ('Sorry lads, I thought it was an 8:30 kickoff!).
In fact, Jamie had not even touched the ball before the ref blew the whistle for the end of the game.
This was a dramatic victory against all the odds, rivalled only by the amazing comeback against 'Holiday Inn' in the summer competition of 1997 (See summer'97 for more detail of that game!). Not only did Alltraders battle with one man short, they had actually scored more than one goal in a game!
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| I'm too old for this | The faces tell it all | Time
for a smile as Alltraders win against the odds |
Alltraders now have three games left, needing a further four points to qualify. However two of those games are now against the top two teams, so we will probably have to rely on other results going our way to do it. Mind you, if Alltraders can put up a performance against the remaining teams like they did tonight, we'll settle for all nine points!
Final
Score: Alltraders 2 (1) - (0) 1 Global Financial
Paul Burton
Kevin Burton.