A hastily arranged game against Mark Muers’ U35 team, Washington United FC.
We really cobbled a team together. High hopes were for the Stadium of Light team, but Smith, Sangha, Dixon, Brown, Gourlay and Barker were the participants this time. Mark Middlemiss was the late drop-out, but the team pulled together to drag someone off the streets.
Dave G shoehorned a 3-5-2 formation in to accommodate one player (*cough – Barker), however, we didn’t have our full complement, so it was difficult. Team talk consisted of “Hello, my name is ——- and I like playing football and darts. My favourite position is centre mid, but you’re going to put me left wing-back”.
It wasn’t actually that bad. We were at Biddick Academy and played on the superb 3G pitch. Football wise we did really well. Stuart Cameron from SAFC Deaf tortured the opponents up front, while the others; Phil Mills and Dean Stewart, roped in by Dom Brown, along with Dan Young, who last played for Sassco in 2010 and David Jackson, both sourced by David Smith, all played well.
Shockingly, Muers scored first, but we soon got back into it with two replies to their opening two goals. Stuart Cameron and Barker on the score sheet. We went in 3-2 at half time, and immediately when the second started, Dixon dropped a clanger to make it 4-2 in an otherwise solid performance. Gourlay then scored a penalty, before Dom hit the crossbar and Phil placed the rebound. By this time, however, we were way behind and eventually lost 7-4.
Good run out and a surprisingly gelled team from inauspicious starts. Fitness hit at the end though.
