Match Report – O35.1 – Game Date: 10 June 2015

BMFC O35.1: 4
vs
Penrith FC: 2

BMFC Goal Scorers: Chicken, Joey, Iceman (pen), Mick R

Player of the Match: Dave Heyman

Match Report: Let’s get started with a quick lesson in arithmetic. There are 4 seasons in the year, each 13 weeks long, which means that the autumn / winter seasons take up 26 weeks of the year. There is 1 Sunday in every week which means there are 26 Sundays in the autumn / winter seasons. Following me so far? Dave, read it again slowly and you’ll get it there eventually. There are 8 teams in our division. We play each of the other teams 2 times, which means 14 games (2 times 7). So we have 26 weeks to fit 14 games in on a Sunday afternoon. Nevertheless we found ourselves at Jamison Park for 1 of at least 2 night-time competition games to add to our 2 night-time Nepean Cup games…There must me something wrong with my calculations, as we all know I’m not that crash hot with numbers.

Politics aside, we manage to muster up 15 players for the 7:50pm feature match on a field that had been standing empty for 2 hours prior to that …

GK 10 Danny
RB 02 Dave H
CB 11 Pommy
LB 16 Mick R
RM 06 Sean
CM 09 Micky C
CM 07 Dunny
CM 17 Joey
LM 14 Paulie
CF 08 JB
CF 15 Chicken
FW 12 Pirate
DF 03 Jonesy
FW 19 Matt W
MF 04 Mark Ansell

Warm up completed, Paulie is obsessively watching the Penrith FC warm-up (or lack of it). “They’re not moving!” we hear numerous times during our pre-march possession game. To a final “They haven’t even moved!” as we get ready to start the game, with indignation at the sin that had been committed against football.

For not the first time this season, Paulie is onto something. Blueys charge out of the blocks and are rewarded after 4 minutes with a well taken finish from Chicken, off the back of some fine possession football and a great through ball.

5 minutes later, we’re in again. This time with a play reminiscent of one that bagged us the winner against band club two weeks earlier. Play starts on the right side of midfield with Sean Burns, is quickly switched to the left through Pommy and Dave in the backline to release Paulie down the left side in a Blitzkrieg. Ball comes in and Joey finishes well, 2-1. There are some schools of thought which believe that this play will be the one that wins us the championship. Time will tell.

Something just didn’t feel right though, nobody was arguing. The best way to fix that is to give Penrith a cheap goal to give them a sniff at the game. Blueys saw their opportunity after 16 minutes and pounced. 2-1 and order was restored. The next 30 minutes saw Blueys settle into their on-field repertoire of on field niggles, insults and general bitchiness which would have made the popular year 12 girls group at school green with envy. The fall out was a disassembled team with no shape that resulted in a few decent chances for Penrith to equalise or even going ahead.

Thankfully the half time whistle was blown and Sean decided to take the Bad Cop approach which appeared to work. A quick group hug and a few verses of Kumbaya My Lord and all was well again.

The game resumes and the Blueys start to look like a football team again. 31 seconds in and a good run by Paulie resulted in him being taken down in the box and after a couple of minutes anxious wait, a penalty is awarded. Up steps the Iceman, and the remainder of the Blueys go back to their own half while waiting for the Iceman to complete the formalities. 3-1.

Blueys take control of the game and while not completely delivering their South American style football, manage to create chances, win 50/50 challenges, get behind the ball and not really give the Penrith boys a sniff. A clumsy challenge by Pommy 40 yards out when faced with the alternative of a one-on-one with the second fastest man on the field 40 yards out resulted in his first taste of Gouda for the season. Marty Dunn, envious and a bit peckish kicked the ball away after a free kick was blown and was rewarded with a share of the cheese.

77 minutes in and a dangerous long range free kick from The Iceman resulted in a goal mouth scramble and Mick Randall pounced to make it 4-1.

Penrith were desperate to create a scoring opportunity and Danny obliged, with a parry, bounce, pick-up routine reminiscent of the seventies and also outlawed around the same period. The resulting indirect free kick led to a penalty box scramble and a clumsy challenge from The Pirate ending in a penalty to Penrith. The initial effort was saved with another fantastic seventies style parry by Danny, only to be re-taken for no apparent reason. Replay the first penalty, Danny goes to his right and reads it again, only to be disappointed this time by a parry onto the post and some luck for Penrith. 4-2.

It was almost a “here we go again” when Connie rattled our near post with a cracking left foot shot, but this time the post was on our side. Final whistle blows, 4-2 to the Blueys and a much needed win. Some lessons learned and looking forward to doing the same thing on our repeat fixture against the Penrith boys on Sunday. Some good defence from Dave earned him man of the match.

Thanks to Penrith for a good tempered game, and begrudgingly to Chapo for officiating fairly.