You may have wondered at the lack of activity down in U18 land then maybe. Not down to my lack of time to write up the events, more down to having no events to write about.
Junior football played through the winter is pretty much a waste of time at this time of year. Our last match was the cup quarter final on December 13th. Today was the cup semi final against one of the top A league teams in the County.
There were two stark similarities with the quarter final match here. First we had the 8 minute mystery added time referee again. Second we gave a penalty away in the first minute again and quickly went 1-0 down, not the best of starts then.
Good news today was that being a cup semi final we had an appointed ref and 2 appointed linesmen. So I could stand and watch the match, which was fantastic.
I would add though that the 2 appointed linesmen looked to me like they were actually referees themselves and not actually linesmen. What makes me think that ? Something to do with the fact they did not seem to know what they were doing, were always in the wrong postion to see offsides and corners/goal kicks and never up with play. But hey, it did mean I could watch.
We recovered from shaky start with our star forward and top scorer and the managers son winning a penalty himself and scoring the equaliser from it. Then scoring a brilliant second goal. We were then all over them until managers son then went over on his ankle, strained his ankle ligaments and was writhing in agony. As I went over to help with him we then blasted in our third goal. I thought we were going to need that 3rd goal as with managers son off the pitch we were going to struggle up front. How right that thought was.
Soon into the second half our other star forward also got injured and went off too. His replacement, fresh to the game, tried a backpass which went straight to one of their forwards who put it in. So winning 3-2 with 30 minutes to go and our 2 best forwards sitting on the touchline watching.
Manager was muttering darkly about our substitute giving the goal away and was threatening to move him out the way. I actually really rate this lad and persuaded our manager that he was just caught cold and he should leave him where he was. Manager agreed and the lad went on to have a great remainder of the match.
We endured attack after attack but we have a great defence in this team and we soaked up much pressure without ever really allowing any chances to be created.
At least the ref did not add 8 minutes added time on this match, it was only 5 minutes this time. A tense end but we won 3-2.
So Matthew and I now have 2 cup finals coming up. We have our tickets for Villa v Man United at Wembley and now booked our place in the County Cup final.
Say what you like about the Carling and FA Cup, but at junior level where the leagues are pretty much a waste of time, the cup is everything and the excitement of our cup run and today in particular is pretty hard to match.
Good news too, the final is at one of the County's better grounds, I'm looking forward to a beer and the tea bar during the final
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