Cup QF: Russell Athletic 2 v 2 EM95 Monday win 4-3 on pens

Sunday Jan 19th, 2025

BAWA Bowl

TEAM: Sir Lee, Dan, Draner, Jim, Teague, Yinka Stu Duds Al, Morgs, Sheri

SUBS: Rob, Brian, Fordy

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SIR LEE SAVES THE DAY..AGAIN!

Having being spoiled on astro turf it was good to comeback to earth on an average grass pitch, the shock hit Monday hard.

Yinka observed… “Draner won the kick off and decided to pick sides and kick downhill in the first half…..school boy error if you ask me, hence reason I’m not Captain!”

As Ben Ford told Sky Sports after the game… “BAWA pitch is a leveller and this proved to be the case as the pitch didn’t allow for any passing but it was the same for both teams!”

Monday seemed to dominate play and definitely had the best of the opening chances, ball fell to Yinka early in the game on the right, just outside the box, tried a long range lob, but did not get enough on it and the keeper made an easy save.

A nice cross from Rob caused a defender to panic and pass the ball back to the keeper, indirect free kick call. Draner was lining up for the shot, however, despite Yinka telling him to lay the ball off to him so he could catch him in the Golden Boot competition, he did the sensible thing and squared the ball to Brian who smashed a low shot into the corner 1-0.

Duds had a goal disallowed. Sportingly claiming it brushed his hand. Very Corinthian.

Within minutes Monday were 2-0 up, the ball fell in the box to Fordy, who either tripped over with the excitement of getting the ball in the box or was fouled from behind as Neil screamed to the ref, either way Yinka was not hanging around and pounced on the loose ball, side stepped the defender and smashed the ball home from close range 2-0.

Another run from Yinka saw him give the defender a little shimmy, wriggle of the hips, it was enough to send the defender to the floor but unfortunately the through ball to Fordy was a little too strong and another chance went begging.

Second half was a shocker, literally an uphill struggle on the super slopey pitch.

Monday became even more disjointed, stringing passes together proved difficult and this gave the opposition hope.

They won a corner following a series of thro- ins from their half and the oldest man on the pitch (well he looked the oldest and best tanned) put in a perfect corner that gracefully went over Sir Lee who watched the ball saying “oh shit” and dropped by the back post for their striker to head/shoulder it in?

As Jim observed at his post match press conference… “Strong start ruined by the old guy with Beckhams right foot!! His corner delivery was insane !! Oh well, it couldn’t happen again…but it did, exactly the same corner with exactly the same result….bloody hell, bythe time they had another corner Monday adopted the classic American Football formation, they all marked the goalie and disregarded man marking, it worked the ball dropped on Yinka’s head who cleared the danger, lesson learned do not give them corners."

Draner whipped over a quality corner which Jim got a foot at full stretch but directed the ball entirely in the wrong direction! 

To be fair to them Russell did create a good chance, a one on one with Sir Lee, the striker running to goal looked offside, Neil protested he was offside, a cursory glance at the linesman was a waste of time, we was chatting by the half way line to anyone who would listen about his minor operation Luckily for Monday the striker missed the target and the Blues survived.

The game was pettering out until Rob cropped up in the box unmarked, 6 yards out with a deft header with only the keeper to beat….he had all the time in the world but the sun/cloud or something must have got in his eye because he managed to glance the ball wide.

With the final kick of the game Monday could have won it, from a throw in. Yinka picked the ball up, glided past his defender, actually looked up for once and floated a perfect ball (well he says perfect) ball into Jimbo, the smile on Jim’s face was a treat, he rose like a salmon… Jim explained what happened next… “Yinka sent over the perfect tantalising cross, I watched it all the way, just had to beat the defender and get it on target. Must hit the target! I did the first bitand then f***ked up the second bit and watched the header drop just over the crossbar!”

Ref blew immediately for full time.

Happily in the resulting penalty shoot out Sir Lee saved the day. Literally. Stopping two pens and nearly saved another. Legend.

Yinka later explained his own penalty… “After seeing Duds score his penalty, I said to him that was one of the worst penalties I seen, barely stopped laughing when my effort was even worse, a slip before contact with the ball saw the first rule hit it on target work but the second one, hit it hard fail….luckily we had the cool head of ‘Two-Pens’ Draner and excellent keeping from Sir Lee that gave us victory.”

The cup dream lives on.  

MOM: Sir Lee