Sparticans 4 – 2 London Wayfarers Barbarians (H)
By Andrew Bell
Scorers: Kevin Grant (FG), Michael Homem (FG), Michael Homem (FG), Kevin Grant (PC)
The Sparticans had the one pre-season friendly, an away game which took us all the way to the Norfolk / Suffolk border, to brush off the cobwebs of the summer break. With only nine of our regular squad making that game there was some rustiness still evident for more than a few players in the opening 20 minutes of the league opener, which meant it took us that long to put the ball in the back of the net after dominating but not finishing numerous opportunities to score.
Evidence of such included Joel, the most recent recruit to the Spartican “Youth” development program, taking a free-hit from the sideline within our defensive 25 and passing it straight off the backline to give the oppo a nicely positioned long corner. He clearly has been watching Skippy making his side-line advertisement board passes and thought he could give his own twist to it. Words will be had.
The opener involved a turn-over high up the pitch, one of several the Sparticans had managed through strong pressing, allowing the older Grant brother to take the ball into the circle along the back-line before laying off nicely to Grant the Younger who had time to choose his spot and finally open our scoring.
The remainder of the half was broken play with everyone switching off in small moments and a lack of communication at both ends. Gary was pick-pocketed on our defensive 25 taking too long and not keeping his stick on the ball, their players were finding space in the circle, whilst at the other end there were air-swings and searching passes forward that Usain Bolt would have struggled to rein in. What we felt was a clear penalty stroke, after Michael (another “Youth”, being under 40 years of age) was pushed in the back inside the circle as he was about to take a shot, only turned into a short corner as a number of other players also couldn’t manage to get the ball cleanly under control and connect to either pass or shoot.
Whatever was said at half-time did the trick, as we started to string passes together and dominate for an extended period. A quick transfer from high up on the left side of the pitch through Belly in the centre to Matty Sutton on the right side gave him space to drive forward to the circle. Their defence managed to close the space quickly enough to force Matt to look for the pass instead of shooting, but he hit the ball at pace to the far left post where Michael slid in with his stick out-stretched to deflect the ball in for our second goal.
This led to two further quick goals. The third from a ball knocked around in the circle finally breaking to Michael to snaffle his second. Our fourth was a direct strike from Kevin (Grant the Younger) on a penalty corner. Not his cleanest or best strike, but maybe that is what did it as the ball bounced over their goalies’ right kicker. I’m sure Kev is happy to get his goal-scoring underway a bit earlier this season, but it does serve notice to anyone else seeking the Golden Stick this year as he collected two.
The final 10 minutes of the game we got tired and let things get to us. A few more raised hands, not playing to the whistle, and a few stern words from Barney (thank you to both umpires by the way) after Adam’s progeny was Gary’d (a noun and a verb), meant we switched off before the full 70 minutes was over, allowing the Barbarians to convert 2 goals after sloppy play in the open field.
Matty Sutton’s assist got Moment of the Match. A solid opening performance from all of the defensive backline, Gary, Adam, Apples, Lloydy, Joel and Stanners, and some great saves from Lee “Save It” Creaser, despite our regular centre back pairing being unavailable, nearly gave us a clean sheet. We won’t talk again about the final ten minutes. From amongst those players a phoenix rose from the flames to be voted Spartican of the Day – no, that was just Adam after a warm sunny day on Pitch 2. I think he was more pleased that he wasn’t the youngest player in the squad and thus not obliged to count votes.
A really tasty club derby next weekend against Cobras, looking forward to that immensely.
Thank you to the umpires again and also to the Club bar and kitchen staff – tasty opening match teas alongside plenty of beer, where else would you want to be on a sunny afternoon in Surrey?