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| The storm clouds gather | Everyone leans to the
right as we course the track of Andy's shot from the kickoff |
28th July 2000 - 19:00 - Attendance : 2 - pitch 2
The Clouds gathered with a purple hue prior to this penultimate game of the Crawley Summer fives. Alltraders entered the arena accompanied by distant rumbles of thunder as they prepared to meet tonight's opposition, 'Jossies Giants'. And believe me, the guy at the back with the hooped shirt certainly lived up to the name.
Tonight we welcome the return of Paul Burton in place of Tony Good, who is still suffering from food poisoning. So this means that Alltraders have fielded eight different teams in ten games. Nothing like a bit of consistency...
The game started a little unusually tonight. Having spied the Jossies 'keeper slightly off his line, Tim gently rolled the ball to Andy who curled a shot of venom straight through the opposition defence, past the 'keeper who was still checking his gloves, but sadly hard against the far post and out for a throw. Had this gone in it would have been the quickest goal in Alltraders history. This image below was frozen at 01:20F which I calculate to be about 1.8 seconds!
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| The storm clouds gather | Everyone leans to the
right as we course the track of Andy's shot from the kickoff |
This little bit of early excitement on an otherwise dark dreary evening seemed to kick start both teams into action. Jossies looked to be quite quick up front, but tonight's joint defending efforts of Tim and Paul seemed to keep any threat at bay.
Andy and Kevin were looking to be back to their dynamic selves tonight as time after time they carved openings behind the Jossies defence to either hit the final effort just wide, or making the opposition goalkeeper pull off a spectacular save or two.
Eventually Alltraders found the illusive first goal when a swift passing move found Kevin with the time and space to measure his shot past the stranded goalkeeper to open the scoring for Alltraders...
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| Another shot is parried away | Some midfield action |
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| Kevin's first effort is saved | ...but the second is converted in true style. | One - nil ! |
The pitch was heavily sanded tonight, and with the steady rain the ball seemed to zip off of it at alarming speed. The advantage was always going to lean toward the team with the better first time control, but as neither team seemed to have any it looked like this was going to be anyone's game.
If anything Alltraders age and experience seemed to shine through tonight, and they went further ahead shortly after when Kevin Burton pushed the ball delicately into the path of Tim Leader who by now was in full 'sprint' down the right side of the pitch. With the ball refusing to slow down on the wet pitch, Tim just managed to stretch his toe far enough to lift the ball over the fast approaching 'keeper, just before entering his goal area.
With opposition shouts of 'AREA!' echoing around the ground, the referee stood firm and allowed the goal to stand, much to their vocal disapproval. Sadly this superb goal was not captured on video do to the camera girl having to change locations due to another sudden downpour. Had it not suddenly decided to rain just at that particular point in time you would have seen quite clearly that Tim did not enter the goal area when he toed it over the goalkeeper. You'll just have to take my word for it, and I never lie...
However, the camera was in position to catch Alltraders third goal. Tim picked up the ball in midfield, and sidefooted it to Paul who in turn hit the ball first time to his brother Kevin on the left. In true Burton style, he cut past his defender and instantly threaded the ball through to a now unmarked Andy Westerman to gently nudge it into the empty net for Alltraders third goal.
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| The hooped giant can't
quite make it back in time as Andy makes it three for Alltraders |
The combined defence
of Tim and Paul stifle another Jossies attack. |
With Alltraders now three goals ahead, it looked a real possibility that they would go on to at least equal their five-nil record so far in this competition. Kevin was looking as penetrative as ever, Andy's runs continued to pressure the opposition defence, and even Paul Burton came close to extending his zero goals so far this season for Alltraders.
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| Another Kevin Burton effort goes just wide | Paul Burton gets in on the action | Andy continues in his
quest to beat every player on the pitch during one of his runs |
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| Andy lines up his magic
left foot as the flying defender launches himself yet again. |
The ball sails skyward
missing the goal by a few inches |
By now Alltraders should have sealed the game up, but for all their ambition they failed to find the finish. As they pushed further forward to try and improve their lead, a counter attack found Tim Leader covering two Jossies attackers. As Tim tried to cover the run, the unmarked attacker received the ball and took his chance well by slipping the ball under the diving Warren Fiveash to claw one back for the opposition. Warren retrieving the ball from the net was the first time he had touched the ball so far in the second half.
If this wasn't bad enough, an almost carbon copy move two minutes later led to the opposition's second goal. Things were now looking a bit shakey for Alltraders, so every effort was placed into defending their lead for the remaining three minutes.
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| Another Kevin Burton effort goes wide |
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| What are you looking at? | Alltraders celebrate their second win. |
So, although Alltraders had pretty much dominated this game, they still showed signs that they lack concentration at the back. Although Alltraders have had a very inconsistent season, they really should have won this game by a much larger margin if they want to regain their status in the forthcoming winter league.
Alltraders return next Thursday to play their last game of this competition. If they win that they will probably end up in sixth or seventh position out of twelve, one of their worst ever placings. It now looks odds-on that Andy will get the golden boot, and every possibility for Tony to continue his 'goal-a-game' record.
Look out for next weeks all-action match report to find out if they do !
Final Score:
Alltraders 3(3)
- (0) 2 Jossies Giants
Kevin Burton
Tim Leader
Andy Westerman