Winter League Game Week #4 - vs Paarl (Mens 3s) - 2013 Season

04 May 2013

Venue: Paarl Gym

Opponents: Paarl

Time: 16h30

Twas a lovely day out in the Paarl. Taking a slow Sunday drive to the venue (which is basically top speed in Paarl) I had a catch up chat with one of the Paarl boys, ex CDs player Fish - and I think in the off season he has been eating bricks. The guy is big, his muscles have muscles on them. Two game in a row we require medical staff for piss tests. After realising that i would be graced with marking him for the duration of the game, I knew last weekends UCT game would seem like a walk in the park compared to this one.

Continuing our winning form and winning the toss we decided give them the ball - Thinking we would give it a week before trying the heroics of the previous games 18 second goal. The first 10 minutes way quite a slow start to the game. Seemed both teams were just feeling each other out.

Neither team wanting to be caught in possession of the ball or countered so neither of us pushed forward that much. After a ball, which seemed pretty easy to clear, was missed in the D and a little goal mouth scramble. Paarl was able to get a shot off which made its way past Youngster who was unsighted. Mutual 0 - 1 Paarl.

Getting a little bit of a shock as we went one goal down, our forwards stepped it up and started to create some chances. Our first goal came about from a platter….from the Paarl defence when taking a 16.(The type of platter that Vis “The Chef” would be proud of) Demon’s eyes were like saucers after receiving the ball from the 16. He then slipped it to Basil (debut after being promoted to the 3s from the 2s) who popped the ball onto his reverse stick, like there was anywhere else the ball was going to go, and smashed up level with Paarl. Mutual 1 – 1 Paarl.

We took the lead with the help of Blake getting on the end of a wonderful river ball. The keepers glove somehow saving the deflections, but Blake was quickest to react to the rebound, throwing himself at the ball and slotting it home to put us into the lead. Mutual 2 – 1 Paarl.

Tosser got a little tongue lashing from the umpire (no not the good type of tongue lashing) after simply querying his decision. Feet touching the edge of the circle should be 5 from the dotted line – apparently he was wrong. And then in a “I wont admit im wrong attitude” – He was told he was not allowed to query anything else….Like that was really going to stop him.

Tallis thought things were getting a little boring on the field, so wanting to make things exciting for the crowd he tackles the Paarl centre link from behind. It looked very similar to a spear tackle or one of Butch James’ no hands tackles. It ended up with the two of them rolling around on the floor a little. By the time Tallis had got back to his feet their umpire was waving a green at him. A little deserved but after looking at the rest of the game, there should have been plenty more cards if that was a green.

So Tosser did his thing and literally took his time taking the next 16 so that Tallis could get on the field. It was the longest 2 minutes of my life, im sure it was closer to 5. We eventually were back to 11 players and the half time whistle sounded. Half time talk was very chilled compared to the UCT game. We threw around a few tips and were ready to take on the second half.

Second half was like watching a game of tennis. Back and forth the whole time, no real clear cut chances. We defended a couple of shorties well until Youngster let one slip thru his legs. #TriangleShapedCoffin. #LegsLikeaProstitute. Mutual 2 – 2 Paarl.

We went into panic mode. We needed this win to keep up with VD Stel and Millies at the top of the table. We technically we need every win, but….. you know what im saying. This was the last time I would see Caveman until the end of the game. All I said was “we need to push them a little more” Caveman never returned to our half of the field for the rest of the game.

So with our defence down to 3 (which we have played before – but only when chasing bonus points) we continued to fight hard. Throwing everything into every tackle. Mick, on the left,  sticking to his player like glue which means his nickname of Bungee is now out of the window. Darren , on the right, marking the huge space left by our now attacking centre back Caveman. We finally get a shorty, dragflick thru the keepers legs and the defender cleared it “from behind the line” for a long corner….Tosser not impressed. But instead of arguing ran to take the long corner and forced a few shitty tackles to eventually win another short corner. This time we decided to slip to Caveman, I greeted him as if he had been off the field for most of the second half. Short corner worked, but might have been smashed against Blakes foot on the way thru. Credit to Blake who owned the shot and walked away like nothing happened. In steps Goose to overturn the decision. At this point we all had flash back of the one draw we had last season where Goose disallowed a goal. But fair enough “THIS TIME” it wasn’t a goal.

I would like to apologise to Doc’s physicians. We did leave it kinda late this week, and he did complain about his heart racing near the end. With 2 minutes left in the game and after a goal mouth scramble, Demon turned and smashed the ball at goals forcing the keeper to save. Up steps our trusty striker Blake pouncing on the lifted ball and playing a reverse stick drive that his cricketing coach would be proud of.  Mutual 3 – 2 Paarl.

Paarl turned to all-out attack as soon as they centered off. Peti-Weepo getting in the decisive tackle and just holding the ball up forcing the striker to hack him. Mutual ball…..and yes a little time wasting was in order, we needed just under a minute to secure the win. One “Import” fakey, followed by asking Goose if the player was  5 meters, then followed by throwing the ball as far as I could #SkyRaper and out the grounds……Final Whistle

Final Score: 3-2

Yours in awesomeness

Tosser

#34 – was a struggle and our closest game to date. Boys showed determination!

Keep it going boys!