It was a late kick off for us, a 3pm at sunny worm wood-scrubs, Which gave Doc the perfect chance to put us through an extra long training session, perhaps inspired by the prison backdrop warden Mike led us through our new drill which included shooting pratice, he scored the first then 16 misses later Daniel banged one in with German efficiency. This was followed by musical chairs type shooting game, we can score goals to Abba but not to queen, Freddie would not be happy.
Then after a minutes silence for the 96 who lost their lives 20 years ago, it was time for the big kick off , we had a number of new guys making their debut in Bruce, Dan, and James and Jon made made his first league appearance in a while, so when kick off came we were in high spirits.
The game started like a game of chess with Brighton probing our midfield and defence but our new formation had their attacks breaking upon our walls like Persians against the mighty 300. After about 10 minutes we began to take control of the midfield with Dan breaking up the attacks while John's movement up front combined with Bruce's charges out of midfield caused them real problems, at the same time Joe and myself were having an interesting conversation involving cow tipping.
As the game progressed Brighton carved out a number of opportunities, but found Theo in outstanding form especially for their first effort when he saved low to his left hand side, even more impressive has he had left his gloves at home. When Brighton's attacks did get through the midfield they were met by Craig Oil and Mark and as always they were in fine form, all most forming a Carragher, skertal and Bob like partnership.
It was about 35 minutes in when they got a corner which managed to evade everyone and was nodded into the back of the net, the response was instant within minutes of the kick off Bruce broke down the right and played ball that cut their defence to pieces and John who had timed his run to perfection left the goal keeper helpless as he slotted into the bottom right hand corner.
For the second half we made some changes James came on to make his debut he was joined by Doc, Adam, Rick and myself, within minutes of the restart Brighton scored, how it doesn't matter and the moment should never be spoken of again. With the score at 2 - 1 we needed to hit back quickly, unfortunately the ref had other ideas, and for a split second we were all transported to old trafford when the most crazy penalty was awarded when the ref claimed Craig had handled and with that it was 3-1.
We continued to push with myself, James, and Bruce causing them problems down the right and John and Rick down the left doing the same, as we pushed Jon went for a header and got cracked and that was the end of his game. At the other end Gary scored when their cross was cleared but fell to him on the edge of the box and he slotted home, not long later it was 5. But yet we still pushing and playing the better football when Bruce broke and shot which managed to sneak past the goalkeeper. Then with us continuing to press Dave broke down the left when he was sieved down, a yellow card and some shouting later, we continued with the game. Unfortunately Doc couldn't as he fell badly on his ankle while tackling back. It had been a real effort by everyone but we just ran out of time which was a shame as we were all enjoying it and playing really well.
Some mentions to finish with, well done to James, Dan and Bruce who played very well on their debuts and to Dave who's first half formation was Rafa like in brilliance and executed to perfection by everyone on the pitch.
Have a great week
Ant
