Maori were stronger than the last time we played them away (and beat them 0-4) and it proved to be a hard game against a generally younger side.  We created several chances but despite going close on a few occasions, the half time whistle paused proceedings with the score at 0-1.  It was noticeable that there was a little less conversation in the Carshalton side and we seemed to be in a world of our own.  Maori’s first goal came from a small defensive error which was pounced upon by a fast moving Maori frontline warrior. A cheap goal, where an unmarked Maori player was standing on our penalty spot waiting for an easy pass, saw us go 2 down in the second half.  All in all, not a great team performance from us, we were losing out in midfield and some of us (ok, me), got caught in possession far too often.  There were some good runs from Gavin Dykes, Trevor Boughton and Brian Ashwood, and Terry, our borrowed goalie played with amazing grace, but generally we were far too disjointed, (possibly even dysfunctional) and there was little chance of any goals coming from intelligent passing.  Elvis the Pelvis was all shook up suffering from a back problem and so there was no hope of his legendary swivelling hips bringing a wonder goal.

Needless to say, the fearless Vets, battled on until the final whistle and we were better in the second half but it was not to be.  Sadly, they were not a better team than us, they didn’t really deserve to win and we really shouldn’t have lost but people tell me that football can be like that sometimes!  

Anyway, more importantly, by Sunday lunchtime all was once again well in my football world, when I watched my son’s team win their semi-final replay and make it into the final of the Epsom & Ewell Youth League Under 15 League Cup.  

 The Norm
(with valuable contributions [in italics] from Jim Finn, Sam Karlsson, Elvis P and Elvis vE)