Whitehill Thundercats 2 St Pats 1
The Pat’s made the long journey to Brynna with only 11 players and what can only be described as a smelly mess of a manager (Dai Rees) who had been drunk under the table by his younger brother the previous night.
Team selection privileges we duly stripped from the gaffer as he couldn’t speak (and when he did open his mouth it smelled as if he’d been eating shit), so Brennan was left in charge of organising the team.
Tom Coles again started between the sticks and the defence consisted of the ever present Ryan ‘3 in 3’ Calligan on the right, a new centre half partnership of Chris ‘poppers’ Crowley and the St Pat’s newest tramp Phil Tom. Ginger Matthew Donlon made his return from the wilderness to complete the back four. Midfield saw Con pushed up from defence covering the left wing and Matthew Jones, fresh from binning big Dai, keep his place on the right. A new central partnership saw the dirty ferret Craig Ward joined by Ryan ‘Don’ Williams. Gavin ‘2heads’ Davies made his first start of the season up front alongside Brennan.
A tense first 15 minutes saw the Thundercats bossing the game and the Pats were left to pick up the scraps and break on the counter attack with the Cons blistering pace. The defence were awesome and it seemed as if nothing would get through Crowley and Phil. Gradually the lad’s forced themselves back into the game and with some quick releases from the back and good link up play with Ginger matt and Con was proving fruitful.
St Pat’s got the breakthrough they deserved shortly after when Con blitzed down the left to keep the ball from going dead to cut the ball back for Gavin Davies to finish well into the bottom corner. A deserved lead and the Pat’s were buzzing (well Dai was anyway).
It was now the turn of the Thundercunts to attack only on the break and some good goalkeeping and goalline clearances kept them at bay.
For the rest of the First half the Pat’s were dominant with Matthew Jones (kindly named ‘the tubby number 16’ by our opponents) missing chance after chance, one on one after one on one. It just wasn’t his day in front of goal. Gavin Davies also saw chances saved and just wasn’t sharp enough to force home a parried shot and again a chance was spurned. Some fucking disgraceful tackles followed by the thunderdtwats and as Brennan was mercilessly hacked even the Ferret disapproved. There were 3 further chances for the pats before half time which all need highlighting as they could’ve put the game out of sight had they gone in. Gavin Davies raced clear of the defence and with the keeper rushing out lifted the ball for what looked like the perfect lob only for the keeper to handle outside the box to thwart him. The result …a yellow card for the keeper. A shocking refereeing decision. Secondly the ball somehow found it’s way heading towards the Con who from just inside the box saw his left foot (his apparent ‘good’ foot) shot balloon high and wide. Then came what would prove to be the miss of the match. A long punt up field saw Gavin Davies win the flick on which saw the dirty Ferret clean through with only the keeper to beat from ten yards, the result..a scuff/slice of biblical proportions which saw the ball heading towards the corner flag, Muppet!
Half time 0 –1
Second half started much as the first ended with the Pat’s looking for the decisive second goal, and the defence superbly dealing with anything he thunderminges could throw at them, a new centre half partnership was blossoming and Crowley had a stirring in his nether regions as he finally found the Ying to join his yang! Ginger matt was nutmegging people for fun and Ryan Calligan was up and down the right wing like a demented RedRum and only a smart save from their keeper foiled his attempt to make it 4 goals in 4 weeks. The Ferret was everywhere too chasing people down as if they were covered in pheromone spray and the Don had remembered how to head the ball. A Gavin Davies cross was met by a Brennan backheel into Matthew Jones’ path and his fierce strike was well tipped over by the keeper who was having an inspired game having already twice diving at Brennan’s feet to claim the ball, though he shouldn’t have been on the field.
Brennan was also unlucky with a decent overhead kick shortly after which despite a clean contact was straight at the keeper. It seemed as if there was nothing the pat’s could do to get a goal and they were getting frustrated.
A rushed clearance saw Sherman beat his own keeper only to breath a sigh of relief as the ball bounced back off the crossbar. It looked as if the Pat’s were going to have to settle for a 0-1 win but they wouldn’t give up and perhaps were trying to hard to finish the thunderfucks off. This it would prove would be their undoing as Ryan Calligan got caught out at the back the opposing winger drifted in to cross for an unmarked striker to head home the equaliser. Devastating for the Pat’s and even more so for the defence who had performed so well. With 20 minutes left the Pat’s had to try and get the next goal to win a game they deserved to be leading by a hatfull. Then ….Heartbreak for the Pat’s as a shit shot from the left caught a deflection off Phil Tom and passed the helpless Tom Coles to put the Thundertosssers 2-1 up. This hit the Pat’s for six and with 15 minutes left the boys were now searching for an equaliser when they should have been home and dry. Long balls and shots were now going astray and the boys were downhearted as they deserved to be.
Final score Thundernobs 2 – St Pat’s 1
A game with many positives (mainly in defence), spoiled by poor finishing and 1 dodgy refereeing decision that would have changed the game.