Yet again, the games come thick and fast for the Alliance, and yet again we struggled to get a team but come KO we'd got a pretty decent 11. We're playing Perfidious (again, third time and we've still got one more game against them this season in the league!) the team we'd bum rushed 6-0 a couple of weeks earlier.
So we line up with Smithy in goals, a makeshift back four of Jeff and James (who'd dropped out of another team to play for us) as full backs, with Gibbsy (skipper for the day) and debutant Liam at centre back. Three in midfield of Jesse, Iain (to watch their best player) and Simon (who was liable to collapse at any minute due to post-marathon fatigue, 3hrs 50 tidy) then Ballsy in the whole with Paul and Micah up front.
It's windy, cold and we're going to get a load of that really wetting rain that makes things miserable. And I'm in goals. Great. From what I can remember it was reasonably even stevens, nothing much contributed to the history of the beautiful game. I was relatively untroubled in goal, we had the odd scary moment but nothing too hairy. Then halfway through the first half Micah latches on to through ball, and his now customary way powered his way past the defender to slot home. 1-0. Things are looking good - the way we scored it seemed inevitable we'd get more.
However, the inevitability of regular Alliance fc uk ups haunted us again. I was just delighted it wasnt me with a ball high and handsome sailing into the back of the net. It was skipper for the day, Mr Julian Gibbs. A ball over the top and Gibbsy controlled nicely into the path of their German striker (who makes he's a nice bloke but it a massive tw at in my book) with Edgar Davids glasses on who slotted it past the on rushing Smithy. 1-1. Buggar. To be fair, I've made far worse errors in the past! Perfidious perked up after this and it looked like the tide would change - they have a few corners but we scrambled them away. I had a dubious bit of handling which lead to a corner but we weathered the storm. We were also starting to pose a threat again - Ballsy weaving his way around their defence, Jesse with some quick feet, Iain keeping tabs on their play maker and Simon just happy to be standing with his knees and feet pointing in the same direction. Forza Alliance.
Then I got the ball from a shot or over hit pass, or corner so I thought I'd be clever and throw out quickly to Jeff (nb inevitability of a Alliance fc uk up regularity). I nearl undercooked it but luckily Jeff got their first, and passed to Jesse who I think passed to Iain, who neatly slotted in Micah who was free to go on and score his second just before the break. What nearly was a big mess up turned out to be a beautiful thing. Success and failure, closer bed fellows than you might think (or perhaps not as people generally agree that there isnt much between success and failure, and if you want to get all philosophical about it, it depends what you judge as success and failure, whos success is it and why are they pedalling it, those dirty bastards in the media...). Anyway, 2-0. half time. I should mention John Hall failed to turn up again and their organiser had to ref and did a brilliant job.
So in the second half, after having agreed that we're not that great at killing games off, we went on to make hard work of killing the game off. Micah had a shot that was palmed round the post which denied him his hatrick, I think someone may have missed a header and Pete (who came for the second half and had a 20 minute cameo in place of Simon who had steam coming out of his boots by this time) had a chance towards the end but we were still hanging on as Perfidious (a different team from the one that lost 6-0, not nececcarily in personnel but in attitude) came at us for the equaliser.
Jeff, Gibbsy, Liam and James were doing a sterling job to keep them out as they applied the pressure late on. The goal as protected by Gibbsy who more than made up for his first half error with a heroic performance as skipper, he was here there and everywhere to make the last gap challenges where necessary. Liam was also proving to be a sturdy acquisition in the heart of the defence. And Jeff, who occassionally purged his natural attacking desires, did excellently at left back chasing back, winning the tackles as well as starting some of our attacking moves (and I dont even think he had a go at any of our own players this week) so with that in mind Jeff takes MOM this week.
2-0. Our first 3 points in the league since December and only the second team we've beaten in the league this season, as our only other league wins have been against the same team.
Over and out except for this - which I saw as an advert at the cinema and it's really good:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfcYMO-9qbM (generally im not in favour of supporting corporate brands who probably employ 5 year old chinese boys to mould the glass of the bottles but this is a pretty good advert so it's probably ok)
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