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On our favourite pitch for the first time this season (2^nd team pitch) and in very windy conditions the Vets took on a very young looking ‘Old’ Tiffinians side.  Referee Alan Lawrance was asked to check various birth certificates before kick off given that their centre forward looked about about 14 (more about him later...).  We also found out what Ranieri has to deal with at Chelsea as we found ourselves with about 8 midfielders for this game including the welcome return of both Rob and Phil (after a long lay off because of injury).

Against the strong wind in the first half, Carshalton tried to keep the ball on the ground and pass our way towards Tiff’s goal.  It didn’t always come off but we kept on going and we played some decent football in difficult conditions with Tiff’s only rarely calling our goalie Martin into action.  We got our reward after good persistent work from Dean on the right and his cut-back finding Shaggy who scored with an excellent finish. (Quite how he found himself in the oppo’s box at the right time was not quite clear as we found Shaggy’s explanation of “a devastating turn of pace” debatable to say the least).

The second Carshalton goal came after Rob chased what appeared to be a lost cause following a through ball, only to find their goalkeeper going for a heavy canon ‘off two reds’ (Rob’s ones). The ball dropped kindly for Rob and he stroked the ball into an empty goal for the 2-0 (after which he understandably collapsed in a heap, stroking some other ones).

The second half was less good as Carshalton lost their shape somewhat but we were never in trouble and managed to score a third (a characteristic poacher’s goal by Pete Culham following a goalkeeper’s error). The only other entertainment of the day was provided by Gary having ‘handbags at three paces’ with the 14 year old (who was half his size and one fourth of his width) after some nasty ‘afters’ by the inexperienced youngster. Gary also went through lengthy turmoil in the bar as Pompey kept on equalising against Spurs (until the 89^th minute). Del’s Man U had a similar problem with Everton (also until the 89^th minute). Calmly, Dean and the Dutchman just sat back and watched all this anguish beneath them from the equivalent of Arsenal’s lofty position.

Oh and thanks to our skipper Jim for not mentioning until the very last minute that we were on tea duty!

 Tony van Emst