Jokers 2 - 3 Guildford Gladiators (A)
By Jonathan White
South Masters Mens O50 Premiership
Team: Tony Haycroft GK, James Hey (Capt), Steve Todd, Jonathan White, Nick Sait, Jim Sayer, Richard Beaney, Martin Dye, David Barnicoat, Paul Dowthwaite, Rob Stone, Luke Michael, Simon Jackson
Umpires: Theirs
“A Game of Numbers”
Gladiators vs Jokers possibly summed up the early start to Saturday morning as SHC took on GHC at Broadwater School.
It was a game of two halves thankfully, not four quarters but perhaps the 1-2s might have turned into 1-2-3-4s if it had been, as the Jokers struggled to link up passes. Having said this the 4-3-3 made some early inroads into the 4-4-2 and no.55 scored a sweetly struck PC ten minutes in. The Gladiators then revised their battle plans and struck back before half time, to go into the break in control.
Playing uphill, into the wind and rain in the second half was always going to be a challenge, or was it just old bodies creaking at the pace of the game? Having said that, no.55 came to the rescue again and slotted a second goal, from open play this time. The game then started to open up a little more especially when the Jokers had to play with ten men twice, which was not so funny, no.10 for “argy bargy” and no.246 for “being fouled on the wrong side??” - both interesting decisions but that’s sport!
The Gladiators stepped up a gear after this, coming close to scoring far two many times, but through well executed link up play they soon drew level. The Jokers pushed forward again but even with a quite a few PCs awarded, too many for the mathematician to count, the Gladiators held firm, and finally snuck a well worked goal to take the victory. The Full English was the real winner on the day though for match breakfast! Roll on Woking next week.