TRIMDON UNITED JUNIORS SEASON 2008/09
2nd November 2008
Eaglescliffe Elementis V Trimdon United Challenge Cup
Trimdon kick off on a cold and damp day with high hopes of a good win against Elementis who are mid table in the 5th division. The ball quickly gets knocked to Sam who drives through and passes onto to Shaun for an early shot at goal which just goes wide. Five minutes later Shaun drives forward again and has another effort fade out for a goal kick. It’s middle of the road stuff for the next few minutes until Ryan picks up the ball midfield does a smart little turn and places it beautifully in Sam’s stride for him to shoot again but once again no joy and the ball goes out for a goal kick.
Elementis are looking better than we expected and they pass the ball well - when they get a corner on 10 minutes they convert well with a well taken header and it’s one nil. It’s a while before we can get something back but on 19 minutes the wait is worth it when Jack Fannan picks up the ball in his own half, drives past 3 players and shoots from 25 yards to get a great equaliser. The balance is shattered however when in the last minute of the first half an Elementis lad scores a goal clearly 2 yards off side which the ref allows to stand. The Trimdon supporters are incensed, it’s the latest in a series of blatantly unfair decisions from this Ref who has given everything Elementis’s way. The howls of derision get short shrift from the ref who chooses to argue with the crowd seemingly trying to justify the obvious unfairness.
Second half kicks off and immediately Elementis slice through Trimdon to get another well taken goal - 3-1 now and with Trimdon playing against 12 men it’s hard to see how they can make headway in the game. Trimdon try to answer quickly and from a goal mouth scramble Luke Walton looks favourite to score but their keeper is good and clears the danger well. This is followed by good efforts from first Ryan and then Luke again but the ball is scrambled out for a corner.
7 minutes in and a nice shimmy to lose his marker from Luke Casson who then fires the ball up for Sam to have another effort, this time knocked out for a corner. On 10 minutes Tom Lawson does some smart work in midfield to get past 3 players and put Sam through who shoots and the deflection comes to Luke W who also fires in hard but their keeper is sharp and saves well both times. The pressure from Trimdon is strong and deserving of a goal so when Sam drives in a corner and Luke Casson strikes it sweetly it looks goal bound but it hits Ryan in the chest and drops to the floor, Ryan reacts quickly, turns on the ball and shoots into the net -3 - 2 now but what’s this??? Despite Elementis having a man on the goal line the goal is adjudged off side and the Trimdon side are stunned into silence. With 10 minutes to go Sam drives into the box and is hacked mercilessly at least 3 times - I’ve seen horror films with less violence - and he is bundled from his shot. Once again the ref turns to the crowd to explain his decision by saying ‘well he didn’t go down’- why does he keep feeling he needs to justify his decisions?. Immediately at the other end a strong challenge from Lanky is punished by a penalty and they score to go 4 -2 up.
The game was a good match with two teams trying hard and it is a credit to Elementis stepping up a couple of divisions and raising their game to beat Trimdon. However the game was marred by disgraceful refereeing from a ref whose decisions were nothing to do with fairness or football and further he chose to argue with the Trimdon coach and some of the parents on 4 separate occasions, accused innocent players of foul language though he didn’t have a clue whether either of them had anything to do with it.. MOM from the game Ryan and again from match report.
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