Photo above. Standing: Paul McConville, Brad Wilson, Aidan Low, “Clicker” Clarkson, Dillon White, Gareth Williams, Dan Mearman. Sitting: Davinder Sangha, Neil Sim, James Cassidy, Mike Barker, John Harper.
We were all excited, as David “Bunta” Murton was announcing his appearance.
This was our first 11-a-side game for two years. We were all queuing up looking for him, as he said “I’m here, where is everyone?” We kept on searching and then he kindly announced that he was at The Beacon of Light instead of Kenton School.
Another mishap meant McDermont, who was due to play, had a crash and practically wrote off his vehicle earlier in the day. He was okay, but inadvertently helped us by having our strongest squad available.
This game was requested by M.U.A.S. at the Kenton School venue, which was a full 11-a-side 3G (or is it 4G) pitch. The Sassco players for the previous M.U.A.S game at the Beacon were Gareth Williams, Dillon White, Davinder Sangha, Paul McConville, John Harper. The missing were McDermont, Collinson, Cooper and McShane (bad back).
So, in came “Clicker” Clarkson, Dan Mearman, James Cassidy, Mike Barker, while Brad Wilson and Neil Sim made their debuts.
The previous game 9-a-side game was very close and was secured in the dying seconds by our opponents. But this one had a critical moment in the dying seconds as well. Barker had taken an acrobatic tumble and up stepped Sangha to take the decisive penalty. A shuffle (due to arthritis) saw the ball stumble in the back of the net, despite the goalkeepers flailing leg. This was Sangha’s first and solitary 11-a-side goal in 32 years of football.
Saying that, it wasn’t too critical. This made it 11-4 to Sassco. The opponents made it 11-5 at the end, but the performance from Sassco was one of the best, with a decent set of players out there – all understanding the bullet points that we have to play it simple. I had a meticulously fine tuned tactical plan with roll on and off subs, which crashed down to earth with McDermont’s crash and Murton’s lack of map awareness.
As always, being put together, we defended goal side, despite a referee officiating, with back line including Clarkson and White; both solid throughout. Sangha and Barker / Mearman were full backs, but we mixed things around due to roll on and off. However, we pressured from the top and had a powerful midfield with McConville, Harper, Wilson and Cassidy running the show and Sim bulldozing his way through.
Up top, Aidan Low was a sole striker in a 4-5-1, and frequently got tangled in the washing line spread across the pitch. Despite this, he secured two early goals, while at the other end, Gareth Williams had no issues in snuffing out problems when M.U.A.S broke through.
- Harper scored two with around five assists.
- Aidan got two with two assists.
- Barker got four and an assist (tumbling for the penalty).
- Sangha got one.
- McConville got one.
- Brad Wilson got one.
My finely tuned tactical document – thrown in the bin a few minutes before kick off.
