| Wed, 28/09/2011 |
Corinthians Paulista
|
6 |
Palmeiras
|
5 |
Outstanding goal by Arbib and goals by Warner secure a well-deserved victory for one-player-short Corinthians. Can't remember who didn't turn up, but if I find him… |
| Wed, 14/09/2011 |
Corinthians Paulista
|
5 |
Palmeiras
|
7 |
Despite appearing piss-poor on paper, Corinthians prove more than a match for talent-laden Paleiras in the opening exchanges, leading 3-2 until Fuller - on his full status debut - decides he's had enough so turns his ankle and hops off into the night. Despite intensive summer training, it's then an uphill struggle for Corries' Boys, who do well to keep within reach of the greens till time. For blacks, I remember I scored two fine goals, Robin scored one and perhaps Arbib drilled one from range and fluked one off the floor of the Westway; for greens, who knows and - indeed - who cares? |
| Wed, 20/10/2010 |
North Korea
|
5 |
South Korea
|
6 |
Strange match with lots of ringers, and last minute call ups leading to an uneven 8 vs 9 match up, with reds a player short - nevertheless they stormed out to an early lead, and passed well, and made the most of the space they had, with 5 unanswered goals in the first half - whites had a few chances, but were unlucky in front of the goal, with rupert making some key blocks and the posts saving a few too (rumors that reynolds was responsible for many of the misses wide of the mark) Second half whites claw it back, one goal after another to level at 5 all, before a late breakaway leaves fuller one on one with the keeper, which he buried for the win. Jeff romeo tangles with howard the late sub - lots of pointing and finger wagging ensues, and a very football like exchange of insults - no-one saw the incident. Ethan and olly watch spurs go 4 nil down in the pub which must have been more fun. |
| Wed, 29/09/2010 |
North Korea
|
8 |
South Korea
|
5 |
Although the teams on paper stacked up heavily in favour of South Korea, the North Korean unbeaten start to the season continued with a fine 8-5 win under the rain. The first half started brightly for the reds, who exerted some serious pressure and took the lead with a stinging finch shot (and a lapse of keeping concentration from Kline between the sticks) but a combination of the white's goalposts (which were rattled 5 or 6 times at least) and some fingertip saves kept the reds at bay. Hugo c - through one on one on the keeper - managed to spoon his attempted chip miles in the air towards the corner flag; mark davies made a couple of good saves - noted in the pub afterwards. At the other end, the whites proved effective and buried their chances. There was some good quality pass and move football by both teams; pete davies and jeff romeo were industrious and played well in red midfield, but sadly missing the final touch though peppered the goalmouth with shots. Whites unfussy but effective jumped out into a 3 goal lead which they never looked like losing. Kline scores his first of the season - 2 for reynolds - several for shorty - another quality game - the long losing streak will start to play havoc with red morale and confidence soon. |
| Wed, 22/09/2010 |
North Korea
|
5 |
South Korea
|
5 |
NW's first match report, so less of the usual self-interested drivel from Reynolds, thank god. The game started - as usual - with a debutant (Luke Reynolds introduced by Hugo Fuller) no-show. (Will all please note here and now that, if you choose to introduce a new person to our motley crew, you are also responsible for nursing them to their first fixture…). Anyway, thankfully, Olly G, sensing the imbalance, honourably decided to go over on one of his rubber ankles early doors in order to level the game up at 7 a-side. Now, where was I? Oh yes, contrary to 'paper' form, reds get ahead 3-1 (or 4-2?) in the first half after a sublime NW hattrick which, unusually, involved some of his teammates in the build-up. But seriously folks, there was some very fine football from reds going forward, countered by some very sloppy defending to allow whites a sniff of the game. Half time team talk: "stop giving the ball away cheaply". Obvious result, two cheap goals conceded minutes after the restart to level things up, and now reds are on the back foot. Man-of-the-match Inglis a veritable rock in defence somehow managing to keep the ball out of the net despite prologed periods of white domination, aided by his sidekick Costello who cleverly alleviates the pressure by keeping the ball out of play for much of the second half after several side-kicks clear the 40 foot fence completely. Good game, good game. |
| Wed, 15/09/2010 |
North Korea
|
6 |
South Korea
|
3 |
Third win in a row for whites who, although a man down, easily overpowered the South Koreans. Kline provides a few for the whites with some neat link-up play; overall quality is still surprisingly good give the average age of the squad appears to be monotonically increasing (the wrong way, for the absence of doubt); late and spirited comeback by South Korea never in danger of winning them the game. Hattrick or more for Rupert's mate (Robin? - Ed) who played very well in attack and defence (who does he think he is??). |
| Wed, 08/09/2010 |
North Korea
|
9 |
South Korea
|
6 |
On paper whites looked like they would run out easy winners, and although in the end the result wasn't in question, some excellent hard work by reds kept them in touch throughout the game, which again was of a high quality with no early season nerves. For the reds - Swallow energetic, and hard as ever - hits the bar with a piledriver from near the halfway line - Fuller nets a neat volley - Paddy again makes some good saves - but overall whites too good - shorty with a couple - reynolds scores 4 - jeff romeo covers lots of ground and olly solid as ever in defence - lots of good finishing and neat short passing throughout the game - look out next week as I have my new magic boots making their debut. |
| Wed, 01/09/2010 |
North Korea
|
2 |
South Korea
|
1 |
Low scoring did not equal low quality in the curtain raiser for the new season. Both of the worthless skippers somehow managed to avoid the opening fixture for the second year in a row, though no retirements from our 14 regulars promises a healthy future for WAFC. On the pitch, Inglis goalkeeping heroics keep blues hopes alive as a succession of top class saves to deny shorty from close range, and some inexplicable misses from kline and gillespie - both put through by reynolds - but unable to finish mean that whites only shade it by a narrow margin. Reds didn't look like scoring at all, and only a kline own goal salvaged the shame of nearly the first niller. |
| Wed, 19/05/2010 |
West Auckland
|
3 |
Juventus
|
6 |
An inauspicious start for Etonian debutant Charlie Peat, whose unexplained - and inexplicable - absence (with 4 other subs waiting in the wings and desperate to play...) meant WA started a player short. Black heads went down even earlier than usual as Juve relatively strolled to a 4-0 half time lead, notable mainily for a spectacular steam-roller of an opening goal by O'Reilly. With Nick Jones changing teams at the half, blacks mustered a brief bounce, netting two early second half goals courtesy of Finch and a "it was a foul on the 'keeper" resulting in an Inglis own goal. However, the comeback was not to be: final score 6-3 to Juventus. |
| Wed, 21/04/2010 |
West Auckland
|
4 |
Juventus
|
4 |
A hard-fought 4-4 draw, notable only for the fact that, for the first time in 16 years, Ollie Gorton turned up before the scheduled kick-off time. Both Shorty and Arbib should be commended for booting the ball into 'row z' of the Council Estate End; Gordon for a fine goal from near enough the half-way line. Can't remember anything else. |
| Wed, 14/04/2010 |
West Auckland
|
0 |
Juventus
|
0 |
Blacks lined up only regulars to face the Pink Mercenaries (and Shorty) on a crisp night. Blacks were one nil up after a superb Arbib volley which was the last highlight of the match for them. Pinks started slowly and were only 3-1 up at halftime. Neat running from Jeff Romeo and good passing from Shorty and Glyn gave them the upper hand and the goals started to fly in after Simon left to catch his train. James, Hugo and Glyn defended well and limited Blacks to shots from distance. That isn't a real excuse because Blacks were as poor as the Pinks were tidy. A lack of running, accurate passing and even the pretense of defending resulted in a 9-2 mauling. Special mentions go to: Park for great hold up play on his own up front -- unfortunately all he did was hold it up until surrounded by 4 Pinks; Kline for an exquisite chip over his own goalie (Cuddigan didn't even bother {or try} to jump); Simon for diving for a free kick and then taking it quickly and topping it straight to a Pink; and Cuddigan for all of the above and for checking the Arsenal score during play -- a new low, even for him. Oh, and Swallow kicked a ball out but this time it was his. |
| Wed, 03/02/2010 |
West Auckland
|
10 |
Juventus
|
1 |
Nick - where was our skipper when we needed him! Ethan will confirm the score - it might have been 12.
Blacks 10 (or maybe more), Pinks 1. The Blacks, inspired by the presence of new dad Hugo, gave Pinks a thrashing on Wednesday night. It was 2-1 at half time, and looked reasonably evenly matched, but an avalanche of goals in the second half destroyed us. And, surprisingly, we didn't learn that giving the ball away as last man is not a very clever thing to do, even when your opponents find it hard to score. Jeff Romeo guilty of a 'one on one with the keeper' miss; Hugo C guilty of many, before finally managing to stick one in the net. Kline scores 4 in the second half - and yet might not have been Blacks top scorer! Blacks more athletic, moved the ball well and deserved the win; Pinks endlessly thumping long balls straight back to Blacks (Swallow a notable offender) and caught with the ball last man (Krick - at least three times before it finally was made to count, redeemed partially by a brilliant goal - swerving, dipping from range - the keeper didn't move). |
| Wed, 27/01/2010 |
West Auckland
|
4 |
Juventus
|
4 |
With lots of lightweights pulling out at the eleventh hour (i.e. before the 12 o’clock Tuesday deadline) with seemingly no better explanation than the weather was predicted to be 'slightly cold', two depleted sides took to the field only to be bolstered by two local gentlemen who appeared, according to Barney, liked they had clearly missed the flight to the Africa Cup of Nations. Noteworthy events were 1] two fine goals by Coltart, who was given - it was suggested by Ethan - an unreasonably early return to the fold in light of his inexplicable absence (which ruined the game) the week prior; and 2] the pasta ‘special’ – discerningly selected by Inglis and Warner - in the pub afterwards. |
| Wed, 20/01/2010 |
West Auckland
|
5 |
Juventus
|
2 |
Unexplained absentee Coltart leaves Juventus a player short and with just a little bit too much work to do to stay in contention in this fixture - the first after a break of four weeks caused by a combination of Christmas madness and inclement weather. Anyone still wondering whether, for the majority of players, this is their only source of exercise each week would have been left in no doubt after about 5 minutes when most looked like they had just been on the receiving end of a marathon. Injuries to Jones (knee) and Spira (quadricep), along with a continuing lack of sportsmanship from Baker (who, despite the extra player and team's 4-2 lead, insisted on shouting for every tenuous opponent handball and obstructing the keeper thereby taking the shine off Arbib's otherwise splendid right-foot second-half goal) should lead to changes of personnel in ensuing weeks. Someone very foolish has been stupid enough to confuse 'best man' with 'worst enemy'. Oh well…. |
| Wed, 16/12/2009 |
West Auckland
|
3 |
Juventus
|
5 |
After many years of trying, Barney finally scored a goal from a nutmeg. He will now probably try this every time he gets the ball…In his own words (some might say 'his own worlds'): "How about this for the match report - it's a bit biased, but would probably reasonably accurately sum up proceedings - After being hacked down in the early minutes I rose phoenix-like and scored a hat-trick including a goal after a successful nutmeg. Pinks win 5-3, even though we were a man down. Ethan scored a nice goal, pinks all played well, worked hard, and passed the ball well." Barns, what else can one say about a player with so little talent, compensated for only by lack of pace? |
| Wed, 28/10/2009 |
West Auckland
|
12 |
Juventus
|
2 |
This match report, much like the pink performance last week, is slightly shabby, and not very diligent.
The blacks massacred us last Wednesday, due to a combination of high energy defence, swift and effective offence, foul play, and good finishing. The slightly slippery surface, and early season rustiness meant that a number of loose first touches gave away possession much too easily. Blacks played well - romeo brothers , baker and cuddigan all contributing, with goals, tackles (not cuddigan), and good off the ball movement. Kline provides the cynical spine with a last ditch chop on reynolds that would have got a red in a big match, and an off the ball incident with nick jones. Shorty's finishing not very effective, but at least we avoided the humiliation of a niller. It would have been deserved though - final score 12-2 could have been 16. |
| Wed, 21/10/2009 |
West Auckland
|
5 |
Juventus
|
3 |
A beautiful new pitch, brand new kit, and a sparkling yellow ball - what more could a man want to celebrate the true start of the worthless athletic season - apparently more, as cuddigan and warner both took a pass on wednesday night. early season rust, and high energy levels led to a tight first half, with the score deadlocked at nil all for 20 minutes -shorty opened the scoring for pink, who were mostly on top, before a well taken equalizer by blacks (arbs?) levels things up. Fuller sweetly controls a high bouncing ball and drilled a half volley (or maybe even a volley) past the keeper to put pink back into the lead on the stroke of half time - super goal - unstoppable, and sadly not an omen of things to come. romeo brothers and baker industious for blacks, who graft their way back into contention - ethan finishes nicely as pink get caught loitering upfield, and blacks then take the lead, and run out fairly comfortable winners. consolation goal for pinks as reynolds spots baker napping in black goal and whips in a left footer. slow ball movement by pinks, and lack of defensive cover mean that blacks really should have won by more. JP didn't make any mistakes, muscled shorty off the ball once, and played pretty well - contender for man of the match. |
| Wed, 07/10/2009 |
West Auckland
|
5 |
Juventus
|
8 |
Several individual attempts to get out of the game owing to mildly inclement weather ("Any probs with waterlogged pitch? Still on?"; "Crawling along in Hammersmith. Probably going to be late.") having been duly ignored, we started basically on time with a full compliment of players on a newly and beautifully resurfaced pitch (with thanks to a very generous anonymous donation from Pete Davies). Unsurprisingly, however, the excellent playing surface favoured neither team, and it took some time for players to come to terms with the slick bounce. Nick Jones was involved early on, being responsible for the first two goals which took the score to 1-1. I seem to remember Parky scoring - how could one forget such a rare occurrence? - and it was good to see Gizz farting around at the back again despite the domestic obligation of a longer commute home. As I recall, the Italian Youth had slightly the better of it in the first half, taking into the break a lead of 5-2. The second half was more evenly balanced with each side scoring 3 goals to take the opening fixture final score to 8-5. |
| Wed, 20/05/2009 |
Partizan Belgrade
|
2 |
Red Star Belgrade
|
9 |
Camp Campione no show for Partizan… when will you comedians learn?? |
| Wed, 01/04/2009 |
Partizan Belgrade
|
4 |
Red Star Belgrade
|
5 |
Reds charge out into a commanding lead in the first half, with rupert holding the ball well and covering lots of ground, romeo and gillespie working hard in midfield, and some neat finishing throughout the team to go into a healthy looking 4 nil lead at half time - reds passing and moving well, making lots of space and leave blacks chasing shadows - couple of balls booted out of the ground don't quite slow down the momentum. Stern half time chat from blacks and tense first 5 minutes lead to a black goal, before fuller connects with a cracking volley to preserve reds lead - all nearly undone as gillespie slips off early, and krick takes one in the nuts and becomes incapacitated in goal - leading to an avalanche of black goals, which almost claws back the deficit - luckily gizz also left the door open, so the next team came on to the pitch early and extinguished the blacks comeback. Big screen telly and grub in the pub afterwards = happy punters. |
| Wed, 25/02/2009 |
Partizan Belgrade
|
4 |
Red Star Belgrade
|
6 |
A narrow victory for the reds, who should have scored more but didn't quite capitalise on the extra man (pete davies becomes the latest high profile financial figure who needs to hang his head in shame having neglected to turn up for the blacks - is sorry the hardest word?) - blacks worked hard, and moved the ball well and quickly from time to time - some outstanding finishing kept them in touch, though reds extra man made all the difference - we had lots of pressure, and but for some fine stops by Marky mark, who performed above his pregame hungover condition, it would have been a landslide win. Inglis busy in defence - alex and santi goalhanging for the reds - ball was a little flat - overall performances too. |
| Wed, 18/02/2009 |
Partizan Belgrade
|
5 |
Red Star Belgrade
|
6 |
John's friend Richard makes his debut for Reds and, despite proving to be one of the tidiest players we've seen for a while, the average ability of the two is still, frankly, 'average'. Notwithstanding the implication of this contrived witticism, Reds look the stronger of the two teams with a number of early chances parried by Warner who, on his return after a lengthy absence, admitted to hiding behind the gloves loaned to him by Alex 'the French side of straight' Quirici. Against the run of play, Blacks take a 1-0 lead; Reds respond with 2 and then Blacks with another two to go in to half time with a 3-2 lead, which is then extended to 5-2 in the second period as Santi appears to score with every ball he kicks. Bored of scoring, he decided to start passing - willy-nilly - to a selection of Red players who take the opportunity to score 4 on the trot to earn a late 6-5 victory, before the pitch is invaded by some hooligans from Oxford University 2 minutes before 'time'. |
| Wed, 04/02/2009 |
Partizan Belgrade
|
8 |
Red Star Belgrade
|
2 |
Nicholas - it is my sad duty to report that reds were miserably and abjectly thrashed by the blacks last night. There were still some piles of snow around one end of the pitch, but it was playable, and the black team was much better than reds on the night, playing some decent footy and helped by a complete lack of marking by reds, which doesn't help against mobile players. Rupert scored the goal of the night, baker and davies were solid in midfield, mark davies scored a few neat finishes (I think - at least one), and although reds were briefly cheered by finch's late arrival, it was a brief glimmer of hope in an otherwise mediocre display. If blacks start to lose when you and hugo start playing again, we will soon know who is responsible !!! |
| Wed, 28/01/2009 |
Partizan Belgrade
|
3 |
Red Star Belgrade
|
5 |
With thanks to B. Reynolds for this objective, executive summary of the game: "In case you wanted to post a match report for last week, I would like to put on the record that I scored an absolute cracker - an unstoppable left footed drive from close to the half way line that was still rising when it hit the back of the net and a good candidate for goal of the season - you probably shouldn't mention the other 20 odd shots that I tried that would have gone out for throw ins on a normal pitch. Duncan scored a cracker as well, and finch scored a header, and reds won fairly handily. (by two or 3 goals, but that flatters the blacks a bit)." |
| Wed, 21/01/2009 |
Partizan Belgrade
|
8 |
Red Star Belgrade
|
4 |
We haven't had a match report for a while, so it's probably about time for another. As far as I can recall, it went something like this: amidst early confusion caused by the unexpected and unwelcome addition of M'Homo, Partizan start with an extra player with Andy Finch changing sides owing to Ingis's late arrival. Despite being a player down, reds take a 3 goal lead, although the advantage belies the fact that blacks are creating many chances but are simply failing to shoot on target. Red goals include a 'fluke' curler into the top left hand corner by J Short and a rather dubious effort scored with a second ball while two black players were retrieving a 'lost' ball from the stands… N Warner pulls one back for the goodies with a deflected effort just before calling half time. Some high quality, instinctive passing football from Partizan in the second half provides the platform for a Warner masterclass in how to hit the target, producing a further four consecutive goals (that's five in total for those of you who are now bored or who have simply lost count), to reverse the scoreline so that black's now leads 5-3. Finally working out that it's not so difficult after all (any monkey can score against Swete in goal) some other chaps add to the black tally to blot the 'pristine' condition of the black scoresheet - I think they were Gorton and the Davies brothers, Pete and Mark - to extend the lead to 8-3 before a late effort (Short again?) recovers little respectability for reds, leaving the final tally 8-4. With thanks to Reynolds for this accurate match report. |
