Men's 2s 3 - 1 Wapping 1s (A)

An afternoon, evening and night out in Stratford…

With a masterclass in organising a game at the same time as a West Ham vs Wolves match, paired with a rail strike and it being set up day for the London Marathon, it seemed that the sea of supporters had gone to the wrong stadium to witness a proper match. As the echo of ‘***** London’ sounded through the changing room, Mattie strolled in characteristically late. Calnan = nowhere to be seen.  At least the new Logistics chat played its part in letting everyone know where we were, and the umpire was late too so the start time was pushed back.

Having warmed up to ‘Freed From Desire’, we started off strong, setting our press up early. It didn’t take long for us to get used to a pitch slower than the traffic in the Blackwall Tunnel, and we began to make progress through their press. Ore saved us early on, after a deflection by the goal. We saw out the quarter for 0-0, before scoring five minutes into the second with a drag flick from Mattie that squeezed through the keeper’s pads. Not long after, Caspar got sent off for holding up play, definitely before the whistle was blown by the lanky umpire. Birdie followed Caspar to the sin bin soon after, and that rounded off the half. Calnan was still nowhere to be seen.

The second half got under way, and our press worked even better, turning the ball over in and around their screens, more and more times. However, after a pivot round the back, Wapping managed to get the ball into the D and across goal from a narrow angle into the sideboard. The Wapping crowd cheered, and some saddo had brought a trumpet along to the game????

We bounced back, with long aerials from Beau finding the forwards deep into the Wapping half. Haspel and Hobkirk provided some skill both down the side and through the middle, with Wapping tiring. After moving the ball round the back, Scotty found Caspar on the left hand side of the pitch. A dribble through four players and into the D led to a centre back throwing his stick on the floor in a desperate attempt to stop the ghost, resulting in a penalty stroke (should that be a card too?). Rhys stepped up, and cut it a little fine with the ball in the corner. Nonetheless, we were ahead again, still without Calnan.

Shnu dived into the floor to knock the ball out of play because he thought it would look cool. It didn’t. Not long after, a long ball down the channel reached a high midfielder, who fed it through to Jack. Hobkirk broke the keeper’s ankles and reversed the ball into the net to give Surbiton a 3-1 win. Special mention to Ore for keeping us in the game on a few occasions.  Credit to the home crowd who stayed and clapped us off.

Settling down for match tea, Birdie left, Dan left, I started writing the match report early, with Calnan still nowhere to be seen.

Next week, we have an away game on Sunday against Guildford. Much closer to home in leafy Surrey and at a reasonable hour of the day.

POM: Ore / Will (on debut)

DOD: Caspar