Calendar 2006/11/18

From BFC Wiki

BFC Vagabonds v KGFC

Result: 3-2
Opposition: KGFC Div 2 League game
Place: YC&AC
Surface: Grass
Kick-off: 10:00
Ref: ??
Team:

Burt, Graham - Hughes, Lyndsey - Kennedy, Tom - Kouyias, Mark - Lowes, Phil - Mignon, Taylor - Mochan, Neil - Musgrove, James - O'Connell, Ged - Quinn, Gary - Sahara, Alex - Sparkes, Simon - Southam, Chris - Wadsworth, Paul - Warner, Ian

Report

Walking up the steep hill from the station and entering the YC&AC enclave at 8.15 on a clear still autumn morning it's hard not to feel slightly euphoric. The bowling green, smoking lounge, restaurant terrace and finally the well-maintained pitch towering over Yokohama bay. To lose a game here would be simply bad manners.

Only an imbecile would read an advantage into KGFCs 10 man line-up. They were a fit and skillful team. No Richard; so Ged created a simple formula for dealing with substitutions giving everyone equal time.

We started casually with the sun at our backs and paid for it with unnecessary pressure trying to walk the ball out of defence along the wings, getting choked by the nimble KGFC wingers. On the ground we were getting nowhere- just trying to block the opposition and creating little movement ourselves, and there was no aerial activity to speak of.

Punishment came from an unpredictable angel-scattering corner that dropped from an incredible height into Taylor`s goal. Alex looked like the Vags only hope for an equalizer in the first half. He had some dazzling interludes – on one occasion nudging a defender in the back to win a hopeless ball showing experience beyond his years, only to forget to check where the goal was before shooting wide.

Some ballyragging at half time woke us up a bit although the first 15 minutes of the second half still remained fairly quiet and dull. Then Alex went off to a class leaving us in the lurch. Ironically it seemed to be the impetus for the Vagabonds to grab the game by the scruff. Ian came awake and started dominating midfield as he can and in turn sparked a general surge of effort. Not surprisingly Vagabonds first goal came from him, a bursting run out of midfield, shrugging off a couple of challenges ending in a clean strike and the keeper well beaten to bring us level. KGFC came back quickly with a decent second goal accompanied by aggravating laughter that later was agreed to be not of a mocking nature.

Vagabonds were clearly uncomfortable with the scoreline and after some determined work in the middle Ian played Gary in with a measured pass to his left. A good first touch then Gary placed his shot into the far right corner with some help from the post to level the score again at 2-2. Vags kept up the pressure and were well into their stride when a poorly cleared corner rolled kindly to Gary on the edge of the box. With a second of time to spare he made the most of it and aimed wide and high of the keeper into the stingy top right corner for an unprecedented second goal from him and lead for Vagabonds in this game. The remaining 10 minutes were tightly contested but the Vags held on to the death, Taylor pulling off some good saves.

A fracas near the end of the half got Ged and Lindsey red-carded for what looked like lack of sympathy for a melodramatic KGFC player who seemed to go to ground frequently for minutes at a time. Later however the genial Swiss ref bought Ged a pint to show no hard feelings were intended and let us know we were a team of superb characters – shit footballers perhaps, but superb characters.

By

Gary Quinn