Match details:
PURPLES: Jo Dant; Richard 'Baz' Barrett, Shahzad Ali, Jan Brynjolffssen, Will Burscough, John Gourd, Phil Marriot, Kieran Birch, Vijay Narayan, Wilco Dijkstra, Paul South, Joe Whittaker, Bertie Beeching
YELLOWS: Ben Lye; Danny McCree, Ky Ho, Alan 'Rock' Radford, Sandy Taylor, Howard 'Assassin' Steed, Dan Image-Flower, Peter Finding, George Betts, Jim Hall, Matt Withington, Rob Barton, Jordan Walker, Shin Kim (ringer)
Not present and incorrect: Alec Alston (should have been Purple), Alex Budenburg (was expected by Yellow)
Final Score: Purple 4-1 Yellow
Scorers: Paul South, Phil Marriott, Vijay Narayan, Kieran Birch (Purple); Jordan Walker (Yellow)
Not Scorers: Rob Barton's foot
Yellow cards: Rock (Yellows... suitably enough)
The Yellow's view of the match, courtsey of Jim Hall:-
A game that could have turned out very differently
The yellows turned up positive and ready to go, and then push back, Silky, fluid, quick in possession, pressing like a unit, are just a few ways you could describe the first half play off the Purples. The yellows did not start well. However after a reshuffle and some targeted man marking a better footing in the game was established and the play on the break really opened up for the yellows. The bad start had meant a 2-0 scoreline was established by half time.
The yellows started the 2nd half much more positively finding a lot of holes through the purple midfield, Dan IF in particular threading some lovely passes, however the bobble on the pitch seemed to have cursed the first touch of the forward line and the goals remained elusive. Eventually one attack stuck and the yellows were able to capitalise! At this point it really looked like the scores would be leveled and quickly!
ALLLAN! … Our experienced CB decided that taking on Joe W under pressure was the wise move and ended up turned inside out (a possible shove may have been to blame) and the purples stole a quick goal. Much to the dismay of the yellows a caution followed meaning the final 10 minutes were played with 10 men and a 4th goal was conceded within seconds of the restart as the team was re-organising. Full time 4-1 Purples… Boooo!
Positives - With the new season approaching this was a great opportunity for the M4’s to get a real look at the talent lying dormant in the 5’s & 6’s, and there is certainly a healthy pool there! I wouldn’t be surprised to see quite a few of the people that played today, to be pushing their way up the teams!
Less than positives - Speed of passing in general needs working on, no one is perfect so this really is more of a general note too all, get the ball doing the work, something the opposition made us pay with!
PoM: Jim Hall - awesome play
LoM: Matt Withington - awesome hair