Alltraders v Broadbridge Heath

8th June 2000 - 18:30 - Attendance : 1 - pitch 3

Alltraders have never been renowned for beginning the Summer season very well, so it could be argued that one point from their first two games is a fairly reasonable start to their campaign so far. However, tonight saw Alltraders drawn against a tough opposition, on their least favoured pitch, at the worst possible kickoff time of 18:30.

These early kick-off's have always been a source of great anguish to the Alltraders team - tales of the last second tiling disaster, the nail through the high voltage power supply or the priority one call from America just as the 'It is now safe to turn off your computer' message appears on the screen all lead to the almost inevitable non-appearance of at least one of the team, or at best a 'Le Mans' style departure from work to the stadium.

So, it came as no real surprise to find that we were without the services of Sal this tonight. Fortunately, a last gasp phone call found a worthy replacement in of one of Tim's work colleagues, Andy Jones from ops.

Amazingly, everyone actually made it to the pitch in good time. What we hadn't reckoned on were two further major setbacks - firstly, the heat. The temperature in the shade was 25 degrees Celsius, and out on the pitch it was quite a lot hotter. If that wasn't bad enough, we had found ourselves drawn against a team containing three sixteen year-old England Schoolboy internationals.

Tim tells Kevin about the three schoolboy internationals	The 'new boy' Andy limbers up...

All in all, things couldn't have got much worse. Not only were the opposition young, fit and very able, they also had a full squad of eight players limbering up arguing as to who was going to play tonight. Alltraders on the other hand were almost three times their age struggling to get the bare five players together. Things were not looking to hopeful tonight...

As expected, the game started vigorously. Broadbridge Heath instantly began to show their skill with some excellent positional play and lightening pace, catching Alltraders flat on several occasions. Fortunately, for all their pace and skill the finishing in front of goal was surprisingly poor, almost bordering on crap.

Paul grapples with an oppostion attacker	The lightening pace of one of the young internationals	Warren decides that mimicking a spider might scare the attacker into missing his shot. It works.

For all of Alltraders gritty defending, it wasn't long before a crack appeared in the their defence allowing a Broadbridge heath attacker the time to smash a shot that cannoned off of Paul Burton's shins past the stranded Warren Fiveash in goal.

The ball bounces off of Paul's shins	Warren has no chance...

Although the opposition were playing some outstanding football, Alltraders were still managing to find scoring opportunities of their own. Both Kevin and Tim were unlucky not to bring the score level after battling their way into shooting positions only to be denied by the agility of the opposition goalkeeper.

Pushing forward was a big mistake. Knowing that the young opposition were pacey in their counter attack, time after time Alltraders were caught with only Paul or Andy covering a rush of opposition attackers . Eventually their luck ran out, and they went further behind by another wickedly deflected attempt at a shot that was otherwise going well wide.

The shot was going wide ...	... but it bounces off of Andy's left buttock into the net	Tim struggles to fight back in the early evening heat

Half Time - Kevin whispers in Paul's ear and Tim tries to regain breath	The sand flies as Kevin battles on	Tim gets in a timely challenge

The second half saw the opposition change two of their outfield players for equally fit and skillful replacements. With Alltraders now almost close to death, it looked like the second half would see the floodgates open. However, they still seemed to find the energy frustrate the opposition into the trying odd hopeful dig from distance. The times when they did find themselves clear on goal, Warren showed his form of old by performing some superb acrobatic saves to keep the score respectable.

Andy gets his shot on target	Kevin is clean through, but misses
Paul still battles on	Kevin's shot soars past three defenders

Alltraders had two further excellent chances of grabbing a goal back before the end of the game. The first saw Kevin clean through on goal with just the 'keeper to beat. Tonight the luck was with the opposition as he scuffed the shot straight into the body of the grateful goalkeeper. Shortly after that, Andy beat his defender wide on the right to strike a peach of a shot, again right at the center of the goal causing the 'keeper to parry it high and wide and out for a corner.

The final whistle eventually blew bringing an entertaining game to a close. When all's said and done, a two - nil defeat against a team like this could be considered a moral victory. After all, it's only a game...

It is now safe to turn off your computer

Final Score:

Alltraders 0 (0) - (2) 2 Broadbridge Heath