ASB 2 Beesotted 1

With IFA teams unwilling or unable to take us on for one weekend, we were lucky that Dan his Beesotted mob were happy to fill
in for a West London friendly. The usual motley crew assembled in the Old Deer Park car park, where it soon transpired that
due to drainage problems the showers and toilets wouldn't be available for use! Visions of Port Vale away last season crossed
my mind (changing in a cul de sac, no showers and playing on a bog of a pitch!) but the ODP pitches have been in reasonable
nick so far so that wasn't going to be a worry thankfully. Added to that was a lack of goal nets but fortunately for once we
had the services of a ref (who handled the game pretty well IMO). The last few stragglers arrived with Daffy, er, bringing up
the rear as usual, resplendent in his Italian suit and beaming with the joys of fatherhood, it was nice to have the Swiss
Daffmeister back! Keir gathered us together for his team talk and picked a strong side for the first half:

Tragi-Lee

Skidz
Tina
Peewee
Task

Scott of the Antarctic
Whizz
Stingray
Slouch

Sharkey
Babyface

Subs: Jools, Jamie, Frange, Matt (Stingray II), Juzza, Daffanova

We started strongly and dominated possession in the Beesotted half, zipping the ball around nicely and looking for gaps in
their defence. Most of the good work was being done down the left as Task and Slouch combined well, Slouch making a number of
fine runs to the byline. They were playing with the wind behind them and any attacks they did muster were the usual balls
over the top which the defence dealt with comfortably, leaving Rob with little to do. We were putting on a lot of
pressure resulting in a number of corners, and it was from one of these that we took the lead as they failed to clear a ball
which fell to Babyface, who calmly stroked it over the keeper and in. Despite not being able to add to the scoreline we
looked very comfortable for the rest of the half and in the last few minutes Jools and Jamie came on for Sharkey and Scott.

Keir stressed the importance of keeping things going and maintaining our passing game. There were a couple of further changes
with Frange on for Skidz and Woody on for Riz, allowing Tina to move into a central midfield role. Beesotted came at us early
on but we held our shape and battled hard with Tina winning a number of important headers in the middle of the park. Matt
came on for Task so that Slouch moved to left back, which still allowed him to get forward on a number of occasions and
provide some ammunition for the strikers. Jools was always a threat, getting into some great positions, but it was one of
those days when he just couldn't get the ball on target.

Time then for Daffy to enter the fray in place of Slouch in his usual right back spot, with Frange moving to left back.
Despite all our pressure though the score remained 1-0; Beesotted had rarely threatened our goal so it was somewhat
inevitable that they got an undeserved equaliser. For once the defence didn't quite clear its lines and Rob came out to
smother the ball outside his area; the ref decided it was obstruction and gave an indirect free kick. The ensuing shot was
well saved by Rob but the ball squirmed out of his hands and one of their players was on hand to score from close range to make it 1-1.

Despite this setback we reacted well and continued to plug away in search of a winner. Jamie had moved up front, and after we
had won a free kick near the corner flag Juzza came on to join him. Beesotted failed to deal with it and Juzza had
done enough to take a few of their players out the way, allowing Jamie to poke the ball home from a couple of yards out. Riz
and Task came back on to shore up the midfield but the result was not going to be in doubt now. With only a minute left Peewee went up for one last header which as usual he won, but he
landed very awkwardly on his lower back and was left flat out in a lot of pain. The ref called time and with Peewee unable to
move we called an ambulance (the first time this has happened in the time I've been playing for ASB). Your reporter spoke
to him this afternoon and fortunately he was only suffering from muscle spasms in his back, so with some rest and physio treatment he
should be back in a couple of weeks. Get well soon mate!

In the end it was a comfortable win for us, but as has often been the case with ASB we spurned a number of chances in front of goal
which made the scoreline closer than it should have been. If we want to win the League this year we will certainly have to improve on
this and kill games off as soon as we can. I'm sure if we make shooting practice a priority in training we will get there!

Cheers,
Frange