OB let one slip

MATCH REPORT BY STEVE ROUGHEAD

Wednesday night saw two of division two's unbeaten teams go head to head, when Old Boy's took on DDL, the "immovable force" against the "irresistible object"
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Old Boy's welcomed back Ian "air miles" Comins, Dan "Buddha" Cummings, Joe "bites yer legs" Chiazza and Des "sniffer" Chisholm into the squad. Missing was previous games MOM Luciano "vespa" Deriso due to work commitments. The importance of this game was evident by the number of players that both teams were able to call upon for this late night encounter (the game kicking off at 9pm) both teams had 12 or more players at their disposal.

The game started while OBs elder statesman Ray "trigger" Rogers leaving the stadium, causing rumors to circulate amongst the supporters that he had been omitted from the squad, leaving many to wonder if he had played his last game for the OBs. It was soon made clear that Ray had to return to the team hotel to collect his kit, which he had forgotten to bring with him. This was later confirmed by the team doctor to be the onslaught of senile dementia.

Both teams started out a bit shaky, with nothing much to choose between them in the opening minutes. Then out of nothing Steve "Bigfoot" Gaffing produced a wonder strike on 5 minutes to break the deadlock when he wrapped his size 7 boot around the ball while in mid air, from all of 20 yards out, leaving the DDL keeper totally bewildered as the ball rattled off the wall and board behind the goal, 1 0 OBs.

Then came a decision by the referee that seemed to unsettle the OBs when he ordered two of the OBs entourage from the bench stating that they were not part of the OBs official roster. One of these being Betty "magic hands" James the team physiotherapist, the other was Alex "old head on young shoulders" O' Keef the team mascot. This decision brought a torrent of verbal abuse from the OBs, but the ref was having none of it and both were forced to watch the remainder of the game from the stand. Upon the restart it was obvious that the decision had rattled the OBs as they needlessly gave the ball away and made to many uncharacteristic errors. It was during this period that DDL punished the OBs by drawing level due to some slack marking allowing the lone DDL striker to go one on one with keeper Sives and make no mistake by placing the ball wide of the keeper and into the goal, 1 1. Things got worse for the OBs soon after the restart when once again the OBs players were all at sea, resulting in a second goal from some sloppy play, both goals could be considered "gifts" for DDL, 2 1. Although OBs managed to regain some organization amongst their ranks for the remainder of the half, DDL were more than able to hold out until the half time whistle.

The second half started out much as the first had ended with OBs having the greater share of possession but unable to create any meaningful attempts on goal. Frustration began to creep into the OBs play as one or two players were sent to the sin bin for various offenses, leaving the OBs in 5 v 6 situations when all hands on deck were required. This was getting through to the DDL players also as they had victory in their sights, they too became guilty of rash play resulting in sin bin violations also, in fact at one stage the OBs had a 6 v 4 numerical advantage which even then they could not capitalize on. And so the game ended with DDL still unbeaten and the OBs left to pick up the pieces of this moral sapping defeat.

The fact that the OBs were unable to call upon Luciano or the likes of Tim Ludford for this game probably contributed in some way to this defeat, as it was obvious that neither side had a players on show that could produce the type of game changing moment that these players can. The return game has the look of a must win game about it for the OBs.

It is hoped that Luciano and Tim are both available when these two teams meet again. The OBs now have a two week lay off until their next fixture against the Brickhouse Devils, but the gaffer has called for the players to put in some extra training for this game by bringing the boys in for a session over the holiday weekend, scuppering some of players plans to take in some of the sights in the likes of Cuba, Costa Rica and Miami, it's a tough old game.