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Can you
believe it! |
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Cries of
“Lazell for England” echoed around the ground. Forest Glade
had for the first time this season strung back-to-back wins
and in doing so also kept clean sheets. |
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Rumours
were now abound that the favourite for the England Managers
job after Sven was not Hiddinck, O’Neil, Alladyce, nor Mike
Bassett, but non other than your Eric “blow torch” Lazell.
Any more of these great performances and Abramovich might
well seriously seduce him to “the Dark Side of The Force”
and make him an offer he cannot refuse. |
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Forest
opponents on this drizzly day were Stambridge who had
earlier in the season given a lesson to our boys and won
3-1, much to our chagrin (disappointment). However, buoyed
by our excellent victory of previous week, the boys were
eager to again “set the record straight”. |
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Fielding
the same side as last week, Chris Wong was back to his usual
form and proceeded to lose the toss. |
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Facing the
first half in driving wind and rain, Forest were at a
disadvantage, but proceeded to play some excellent football.
Stambridge were forcing the pace and using the wind to their
advantage created some good chances, but today, the teflon
coating had been scrape from Matt’s gloves and everything
fired at him he held with aplomb. He was having a magical
game, considering the greasy ball and inclement conditions.
The ever-growing presence of Sam Alexander held firm to
their onslaught, as did Marshie and Scriven. |
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Chris
Wong, well he was there, we think!!!!! Yeah he was there, he
lost the toss!!! |
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Forest
were playing some good football and the midfield of Jack
Moxley, Jack Still and Alex Stephen unleashed Sammy Elliot
and Joe Maskell on several blistering runs which produced
close misses. |
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Jamie
Merrit was excellent and ploughed a furrow down the left
side and tracked back to assist the defence when called
upon. |
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The
conditions contributed adversely to the game, some balls
were being played long and some were being played, which can
only be liken to a portion of foods from Chris Wong’s
uncle’s takeaway- short!! |
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There were
several injury interruptions and in particular we wish the
Stambridge player Bradley well as he was carried off with a
broken collarbone. Chris Wong was also hurt when Marshie
headed the ball straight into his “boat race” and rendered
him “to be about as much use as a chocolate fireguard”. |
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Rising,
Chris looked the reverse of Pinocchio with an even flatter
nose. However, the Green Beret that he is, he soldiered on. |
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The match
was very even and in the dying minutes of the first half, a
through ball was latched onto by Sammy Elliott who engaged
his legs into 5th gear and chased the ball down and bearing
on goal from 20 yards, he let loose an excocet of a shot
which crashed off the underside of the Stambridge crossbar
and to safety. |
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The
halftime whistle sounded. Eric and Ray gathered the boys for
their half-time chitchat. |
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The second
half was all Forest, with the wind in our favour, Joe
Maskell and Sam found ample space and opportunity to use
their pace. Joe in particular was finding room and space on
the left wing and linked play well with the midfield. Jack
Still found a second wind and was muscling in the challenges
and winning almost all of them, Moxley started to control
the play and Stephen tackled everyone and everything,
including the times crossword. |
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Joe was
now whipping in the crosses and causing countless problems
for their defence Sammy and Jamie was getting a lot more
room in the middle and on the left. |
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10 minutes
into the second half, Joe found himself with the ball on the
right, he fizzed a shot, which their goalkeeper fumbled and
ricochets into the net off one of their players.
|
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1-0, no
more than was deserved on the balance of play. Enthused by
the lead, the boys started to play some terrific one touch
football, stroking the ball around. |
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An injured
Chris Wong was replaced by David Smith and proceeded to make
Ray Smith redundant by barking instructions from the
sidelines. The substitution did not seem to affect the boys’
play as Smithy drop into the right hand side and busied
himself and played superbly. |
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With 20
minutes to go, Stambridge were carved open, when a lovely
through ball from midfield fell to Maskell, who drilled the
ball into the Stambridge 18 yard area.
Attacking
the near post, Sammy Elliott arrived with German efficiency
and guided the ball into the net. “Vorsprung Dork Tehnik”,
nien, nien cried Stambridge. They wished it was, but it was
2-0. |
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A very
well worked goal and especially pleasing for Sammy, as it
was his first for the club. |
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The game
was good as over, but unsatisfied, the boys looked for more
goals. With 10 minutes to go, and winning the ball in
midfield, Jack Still pierced the Stambridge defence once
more and laid an inch perfect pass into the path of Joe
Maskell who fairly slapped the ball into the net. 3-0, game
over. |
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Well done
boys, you did yourself proud again. You have all shown a
team spirit second to none and can only be compared with
this brief extract from Shakespeare-Henry V. |
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We few,
we happy few, we band of brothers;
for he
to-day that sheds his blood with me
shall
be my brother |
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Shakespeare-Henry V-c1599 |
