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Wary that Hengrove have traditionally been our "bogey" team, crazy manager Martin tried the following team : Andy (GK), Craig (RB), Glenn (CB capt), Keith (CB), Geoff(LB), Matt (LM), Danni (CM), Mark (CM), Andy (RM), Steve (CF), Rich (CF), Neil (sub), Gavin (sub), Paul (sub).
On this glorious sunny day (hotter than Sydney easy!), Hengrove kicked off downhill with the wind behind them. Following a fairly uneventful opening ten minutes, Golden slowly but surely began to push forward, with most of the play then being in Hengrove's half. It was during one of these attacks, however, that as usual the opposition lobbed a long ball towards Golden's left corner flag. Keith and Geoff both got to the ball before the opposing striker, but both left it for the other--enabling the striker to pounce on the loose ball and approach goal. A pass across the face of goal would certainly have resulted in a goal if Andy hadn't managed to fumble it away from the goal line. About half way through the first half, however, Golden were awarded a corner. Matt delivered a high ball into the area, which met Steve's head powering home his fifth goal of the season to open Golden's account. The crowd (Mr and Mrs H) went wild with anticipation as the referee blew for half time.
From the start in the second half, and with the downhill advantage, golden continued to push forward. With only a few minutes gone, Rich dribbled the ball into the penalty area only to pulled down by a defender. The referee awarded Golden a penalty. Andy thought about taking it, but Rich wanted to finish what he'd started--and strode towards the ball. A soft pass to the bottom left was almost saved by the keeper, who dived the right way and got his body behind the ball, but a lucky deflection off some turf saw the ball bobble over the keepers body into the net. Golden were now 2-0 up. Top striker Neil was then called from the sub's bench for Matt, and immediately made an impact. Attacking down the right, golden were once again awarded a penalty. Glenn kicked, Steve flicked on from the front post--and stalking Neil poached his fifth goal of the season. Feeling the game was won, Martin then brought on Super-sub Paul into left back for Geoff, and Gavin up front for Steve.
Golden then entered a funny 15 minutes, during which time Hengrove managed to keep the ball in or around Golden's penalty box. It was inevitable, therefore, when a loose ball was poked into the back of the net by an attacker : 3-1. A few minutes later, a Hengrove corner kick floated over all the players, dropped onto the top of the back post--and the rippling net told the referee they had pulled it back to 3-2. Responding to the challenge, however, Neil picked up the ball from Mark's pass just outside the right hand of the area, and hit a high curling ball over the keeper. The keeper dived and managed to get a hand to it, but could only deflect the ball onto the back post--where it duly rebounded into the net - Neil's sixth so far…...
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