Latymerians 1 Old Tiffs 5

Scorers: Silva 2, Arlow, Markham, Naylor

Squad

• Dan Rose
• Simon Baile
• Carl Naylor
• Pete Markham
• Jon Kent
• Ted Wightwick
• Alan Coe
• Bruce Houghton
• Oscar Omo
• Ali Rawlinson
• Keri Ryan
• Luis Silva
• Warren Arlow
• Ricky Evelyn

 

Report

A few days after Halloween there were some very strange goings on in Motspur Park.

For one, Pete Markham defied the ancient scriptures which say he only turns out at Grists, and played in an away game. Two, Dan Rose’s vets career was resurrected between the sticks. Three, the Tiffs centre halves both mysteriously scored. And four, most incredible of all, the vets actually won a league game.

It all started like any other day. A bit of banter, an ineffective warm-up. Then we kicked off.

Tiffs had a good opening ten minutes. We were competitive in the tackle, did not look in danger of conceding, and made some good headway going forward, without creating too many clear cut chances.

Then, as a result of the territorial advantage we were enjoying, a quick build-up on the edge of their box gave Oscar the chance to put Luis in. The Portuguese, re-born as a foraging forward, latched onto it and lofted a shot past the keeper for 1-0.

Our tails were up and a few minutes later another good bit of play gave roving right back Jon Kent the chance to cross. He rose to the challenge magnificently, and his arcing ball was met equally magnificently by Luis.

Like a continental Graeme Sharp, Luis jumped and headed it back across the goalkeeper for 2-0.

Tiffs were rampant! It wasn’t to last, though.

For most of the half, the midfield had been doing a superb disruption job on their quite technical opposite numbers. Some serious hustling was going on, with blocks, foot-ins and turnovers (to use a phrase we’ve stolen from rugby) influencing the pattern of the game.

They were aided and abetted in this task by all other members of the team, this was a hard-working performance.

But a scoring chance presented itself to the oppo when they won a free kick on the edge of the Tiffs box.

Keeper Dan Rose lined up a wall but he appeared not to have got his geometry quite right. Seemingly the wall was covering the near post and so was he. The Lats player curled a low shot wide of the wall pretty much into an unguarded net.

Time for Tiffs to get back on the front foot again. And with about ten minutes of the half left, they did just that. Keri lined up a corner, Markham ghosted in unmarked. He’s deadly from a couple of yards out, and buried the header for 3-1.

In the second half we were more ragged and the game was more open. Latymerians probably had more possession and their central midfield were threatening to cause trouble.

But though we were less accurate with our passing than in the first half, and guilty occasionally of taking liberties with the ball, we were industrious enough to keep working to regain it, and Lats chances were few and far between.

Slightly against the run of play we scored two second half goals. The fourth, which effectively sealed the win, was a penalty.

Naylor did the keeper with his eyes. Usually this means a clever deception, look one way and hit it the other. In Naylor’s case, it meant a stare so intimidating the goalie’s knees were wobbling more than Bruce Grobelaar in that famous European shoot out.

The message was clear – save this and you’re dead meat. The defender then hit the ball down the middle, the keeper couldn’t get out of the way fast enough, and it was 4-1.

We picked them apart for the fifth, the ball slid to Wazza who – enjoying a shift back up front – calmly slotted it in.

That was it. Off we trooped, having given Lats a Halloween fright. I don’t know witch of the five ghouls we scored was the best but Naylor’s was the scariest.