Luggsy Secures Win For The Just

 

There’s nothing quite like a gale force wind for spoiling a good game of football; there’s nothing quite like commitment and desire for making up for it. With the wind being far too strong to be conducive of good football, this game was shaping up to be more a battle of wills than a test of finesse and that’s how it panned out with most of the goals coming through determination rather than silky football.

Mrs Foreman’s started the game with the wind behind them and put The Just under immense pressure from the word go. The Just defenders had their work cut out for them but seemed to be coping well until half an hour in when the Foreman’s strikers found the breakthrough they were craving with a shot that eventually trickled over the line. Ross Cooper in The Just goal wouldn’t want to be seeing a video of this goal as it actually looked like it was being replayed in slow motion. After a terrible shout from captain Michael Melrose that the ball was going out he hesitated before diving and missed it by inches as it came off the inside of the post and only just managed to make it over the line. The irony of it was that merely minutes before the first goal Cooper had made a tremendous one on one stop, rushing out and showing one side of the goal to the striker before plucking the shot out of the air and holding onto it like he had just saved it’s life!

It wasn’t long before Foreman’s were 2-0 up. Colin Parker, playing up front this week in a role he prefers to the right midfield position he has been used in for most of the season lost the ball in the middle of the park. To be fair to Parker he was the one player in The Just side who tried to bring the ball down and get it under control for his team all day but this time the Foreman’s player managed to get a foot in and poke the ball over the head of The Just right back who had stepped up to support. This meant the Foreman’s winger had time to play a high ball into the penalty area; with the wind causing havoc for defenders – if the ball went six feet in the air it was moving all over the place – the big Foreman’s striker knew if he forced the issue there was going to be mistakes made and that’s exactly what happened. As soon as the ball touched the deck he was on it to stab it past Cooper and into the back of the net for number two.

Up until then The Just had really struggled to get anything from the game at all, the wind was that strong. It was difficult to keep the clearances on the park, never mind find a man, difficult to time headers as the ball was moving in the air and most of the good clearances ended up coming back at you anyway, so the only way The Just were going to get anything from the first half was on the deck. When this did finally happen The Just were able to pull a goal back against the wind that gave them the confidence to go on and win the game in the second half.

Duncan Barr collected the ball wide on the right, cut inside his man and started to gallop across the park. What could have been a ball to the feet of Liam Rogers was cleverly left for Maff Glynn to run onto from the left flank and coolly drill the ball into the far bottom corner for his fourth goal in two games. Big Maffy has never played with the confidence he is showing just now and has definitely added a swagger to his getup in the past couple of months.

The Just came in at half time knowing they had done the hard work and coming in at two one down was not a bad position for them to find themselves in. The players who were in defence for The Just all the first half knew what a hard time the Foreman’s defence were in for but to be doing it at the end of the game must have been even harder for the Foreman’s players than it was for The Just.

The Just started the second half in much the same manner as Foreman’s started the first with the front line putting the defence under pressure every time they could and the full backs pushing up to squeeze the game, however the Foremans players were actually playing much better football into the wind than The Just had in the first half. Tthe only problem being no matter how much you played the ball on the deck the wind almost seemed to be pushing player and ball towards the Foreman’s goal so for all there efforts to get the ball down and move it forward it really was a massive task to try and score in the second half for The Foreman’s team.

Time after time The Just took the ball off them as they crossed the half way line and almost every time The Just regained possession they were able to create at least another half chance. Had it not been for the quality of the Foreman’s keeper The Just could have had a barrowload of goals but time and again the keeper stood tall to thwart the efforts of The Just strikers. Steph Wilson had a one on one brilliantly parried away. Then a cut back from Liam Rogers found Steph completely unmarked in the six yard box only for the keeper to make another great save from point blank range. Rogers himself missed a couple of great chances before finding himself clean through on goal. He managed to round the keeper and looked for the entire world to have scored only for the Foreman’s sweeper to nip in and block the ball as Rogers was stroking it into the empty net. Heroic defending but a chance that should have wrapped the game up for The Just. Rogers did manage to get the second goal that more than made amends for this sitter. A great cross field ball from Michael Thomson, settling very nicely into the centre half position for The Just found Duncan Barr out on the right touchline getting a drink of water! Barr took no time on the ball at all, just controlled it and played it back across into the centre for Rogers who raced in to play the ball up and over the keeper before making sure this one actually hit the back of the net. A much needed and well deserved goal for The Just that set the game up for a great finale!

With ten minutes to go and the score still at two two it was looking likely that the game would go into extra time and this was definitely not what either team wanted,. The legs had gone, players were lying down with cramp and a couple of people had picked up injuries through tired challenges coming in a little bit late. There was never malice in any challenge from either team but this had been a hard physical game and with no subs left both teams were trying there damnedest to make sure this finished inside ninety minutes.

In the last ten minutes Foreman’s gave the Just a couple of scares when they eventually managed to get forward and create a couple of goal scoring opportunities. When the right winger cut inside three men and sent a shot back through the legs of Thomson the ball started to trickle towards the inside of the post with Cooper on the wrong side of the goals. To be fair the winger had done really well to turn the effort back to where he had come from and he gave all The Just players visions of the first goal going in again, however, this time Cooper managed to scramble across his line and get a finger on the ball before smothering it into his chest.

Foreman’s then went forward a couple of times more before The Just got the one chance they needed with only a minute to go. A good passage of play opened the Foreman’s defence up and saw Maff Glynn tearing down the left hand side with only space in front of him. He squared the ball for Luggsy McMillan but the defender managed to get in front of Luggsy and intercept the cross, however, conditions played their part and the Foreman’s full back wasn’t able to clear quickly enough allowing Luggsy to nick in front of him and poke the ball into the bottom corner.

Party time for The Just who progress into round two, seeing off one of there closest rivals in the first division after a very tough and closely fought encounter that turned out to be the kind of cup tie everybody plays amateur football for.

*There were many candidates for man of the match, Michael Thomson, Duncan Barr and Steph Wilson all being mentioned after the game but in the end it went to Paul Glynn at right back for his steady, assured defending and marshalling of the offside line in the first half; his attacking prowess and boundless energy in the second and his organising of the team for the whole game.

 

*Man of the match award may be fabricated.