Vintage Take Last Gasp Away Win

Vintage 2 - 1 St Albans Centurions

Team: Kotze (Cobras), Bishop (OCs), Aparicio, Bamford (OCs), Gray (OCs), Eve (OCs), Beaney C, Sharpe, Tripp, Lowe, Waller, Gorbert (Amersham)



Umpire: St Albans

Scorer: Ian Sharpe (2)

Player of the Match: Ian Sharpe

A week of realising that email is a great service but relies so much upon respondees (their ability to press “Reply” button) and actually entering people’s names in the “To” box. Nonetheless we bounced between 11 and 12 players ending up (thanks to spare car keys!) with 12.        

The game was an interesting one mainly governed by the officials. We welcomed back Bobby Lowe after a 25 year absence and introduced ourselves to Martin Kotze who debuted as our keeper and was a great encourager! St A had a fairly good side out with five on the subs bench and it looked a fairly tough task for us but, unbelievably, we played as a team, working for each other and covering any errors with enthusiasm and determination.

Chances fell to both sides but we eventually took the lead via a decent strike by our non-goalscorer, Sharpey. Apparently his first goal for this great club and a fine one at that. We held the lead until halfway through period two but they equalized via a deflection with 18 minutes to go.

Awareness of the officials grew and one got the feeling that they were at a different game. We all struggled on toward a draw. But they took the game over – one blew for a short corner for us and then the other blew for full time. Us on the bench were in the unbelievable state by this time only for the incredible to happen. WE SCORED TO WIN THE GAME. Again it was our non-goalscorer.

Well done to the whole team for their effort and particularly the teamwork.