Despite it being another good win for the Vets, this game was marred by two things. The first being a very strong (and cold!) gale blowing across the length of the pitch which, combined with a hard pitch, made proper football in the traditional Carshalton style difficult. The second handicap was the comedy ‘referee’ (and I indeed use the word advisedly) who throughout the match did not move from his spot by the halfway line next to the Polytechnic substitute who he frequently engaged in conversation. When, in the second half, it was finally pointed out to him by the Dutchman, in his inimitable polite manner, that while standing at this location he had missed numerous fouls, handballs, off-sides etc, the ‘referee’ got very upset and actually offered his whistle (I hadn’t noticed he had one) to me! I should have taken it.

In the first half, against the strong wind, Carshalton only managed to get out of our own half on a few occasions. We went behind early on before our defence had got properly used to the difficult conditions. It was inevitable that Poly created further chances but we stood firm and a good combination on the right between the two Vets scribes (Elvis and the Norm) saw Norman reach the corner flag and send a good cross over which provided Pete Culham with an excellent opportunity for an equaliser but unfortunately the goalkeeper made a good save.

Matt, on loan from the 5’s, came on to give us further strength at the back and amused us all by keeping his bobble hat on while playing. It certainly was cold! His hat certainly did not adversely affect his effectiveness and Matt had an excellent game for us. One of our well rehearsed long throw-in routines saw Mike Briggs’ manual missile knocked on to the Dutchman who swivelled his hips in The King-like fashion and put Carshalton on equal terms. This unexpected goal for Carshalton, against the wind, did give us extra vigour and knocked the stuffing out of Poly a bit and we reached half time with the score at 1-1.

With the wind now behind us, we found it easier to get out of our half but we still did not play particularly well. A trademark run on the left by Trevor saw him pull the ball back to a completely unmarked Mike who fired us unerringly and deservedly ahead. We should however give credit to Polytechnic as they appeared to deal with wind against them better than we did. We conceded a second goal following some good work on their right.

Trevor was clearly gunning for goals throughout the game as his team mates were all wondering if he actually has a reverse gear. Nonetheless, Trev put us 3-2 up with a sweetly struck left foot drive that eluded the goalkeeper’s despairing dive. Moments later, another one of his efforts just whistled past the post. While being accused by a bunch of Italians in the Poly side of pretending to be Maradona (I’m not entirely sure why taking his time to take a corner would lead to such comparisons), Trevor proved there was clearly method in his madness as he planted a peach of a corner on to the Dutch King of Rock ‘n Roll’s head (.. & shoulder…) for the fourth Carshalton goal. There was still time for skipper Jim to copy his hero Mourinho with a ‘tactical’ switch (remember Huth against Barcelona…he does get it wrong sometimes Jim!) as he put Norm up front as the archetypal ‘English’ big striker. Afterwards, big Norm confirmed his, as always, absolutely straight and honest approach to life by declaring “I didn’t have a clue what I was doing”.

Thanks to Matt for helping out and it was also good to see John Shaw back after a long injury lay-off. Sam did his tireless running and covering, Gills was commanding in goal and our defence of Norm (that’s where you belong!), Wayne, Jim and Del kept the lively Poly forwards under control, and Pete worked the channels up front like a trooper until, while chasing a perhaps optimistic flick by the Dutchman, he pulled a hamstring. Sorry Pete, I hope you recover soon!     

 Tony van Emst