Month: November 2018

Pic of the week 11/11/18

Geoff Cottell needs a dog.

As a young man, say 35 or 45, I dreamt of playing in front of packed stadium. As one mellows and matures into more advanced years, as I edge (stumble, limp, hobble) towards my half century I am more realistic in my aspirations and now I am happy to play the beautiful game in front of one man and his dog. It was great to see the Legend’s legend that is Geoff Cottell come and support us today – if only he’d had a dog, my day would have been complete.

We call ourselves “Legends” and play in the “Veterans” league but today, of all days, it was humbling to share a minute of remembrance and reflect that it is only because of the sacrifice of so many true legends who never made it to veteran status that we enjoy all that we do.

It was a beautiful, sunny Sunday morning and we welcomed Middlezoy Rovers to our green, green grass of home at Kingweston. The game began with both sides playing cagey, controlled football, probing, seeking weakness that were not there, both defences proving solid and assured, our back four snuffing out danger at its first hint. At the other end, we looked threatening, but couldn’t quite put together that final precision pass to unlock a well drilled opposition defence. Perhaps against the run of play, a communication cock up at the back let the opposition in to steal a goal. Heads didn’t drop, we continued to pass and play, giving a display of cultured, considered football and we dominated the remainder of the first half, but without bagging an equaliser.

The second half continued in similar vein until, 10 minutes in, we won a free kick ten yards outside the box. The big men stepped up, players jostled for position, runs and feints were made. Not interested in these antics, Andrew C-D simply stepped up and struck the ball sweetly, oh so sweetly, into the top right hand corner. 1-1.

At this point AJW demonstrated why he is SLT material. With the hoi polloi of both sides gasping what they feared may be their last having run around for the best part of an hour, up rocked Whatling, fresh as a daisy, to join us for the last 25 minutes, to show us how its done. But despite the introduction of our impact sub, we still couldn’t convert possession into goals.

And then the unthinkable happened, the opposition snatched another with five minutes to go. 1-2.

Spurred into (even more) action, we pressed, and pressed again. Andrew C-D broke down the right and neared the bye-line. Peabody was hammering into the box, six yards from the goal line. A simple sideways pass and even your aging author couldn’t miss. Andrew looked up, shaped to pass but then he saw, he realised. He knew. Pass it to Peabody and even he couldn’t fail to score. He would then gather the ball from the net, quit whilst he was ahead and retire from football forever, closing down the Legends XI as he left the field of play. So, prioritising the long term over short term gains, Andrew took the shot himself, only to see the ball gathered by the grateful keeper.

And so it looked destined that we would be denied any points. But no. A late free kick swung into the box – white strikers took turns to shoot but fail to score, blue defenders took turns, but failed to clear. After watching this comedy, keystone cops football for what seemed an age, a calm, collected Richard Bradshaw decided enough was enough and stepped up to prod the ball home from 8 yards to secure a deserved draw. 2-2

A great morning’s football, witnessed by one man (minus his dog) (My only concern about getting Geoff a dog is that it would savage our debutante keeper – Jake “The Cat” Mawford.)

First point of the season (which means I can now successfully tick off my PDR target for the year) – next game an away fixture v Aschott, a team still licking their wounds following a 4-0 mauling at the hands (paws?) of Huish Tigers, Sunday 9^th December.

Millfield Legends 2 Middlezoy Rovers 2