Friday 28 September 2007

No Special K's for The Rabblers!

Dulwich Hamlet Supporters' 1
Kingstonian Supporters' 3
Intenet Football League
Saturday 22nd September 2007
at Belair Park


A game I missed as I was in Berlin for the weekend (Four groundhops at 1FC Union Berlin; Hertha Berlin; FC Brandenburg 03 & BFC Viktoria 1889, in case you were wondering) and after two heavy defeats last season against the Ks fans this must have been a game approached more with intrepidation rather than anticipation! Although it's never nice to lose, the scoreline shows a much closer encounter than the last two!

Andy Tucker kindly sent me a few words about the game:
"A game we should have killed off in the first half, but went in at 0-0. A well worked team goal saw us go 1-0 up, but some slack defending for Ks first two goals killed us off, and they scored their third on the break as we pushed forward for an equaliser. Disappointing not to win, but always nice to play against the Kingstonian lads. Also our team was once again a genuine Supporters' Team, with no 'guest' players.
My man of the match was the evergreen Ferenc Morath; & the duo who are 'named & shamed' are Phil Doyle, for running off without paying his match subs,as well as not letting anyone know he was going to turn up in the first place! (That's what emails are for folks. Please keep Andy tucker informed of your availability! And Ian Wright, for not turning up, when he said he would be."

For his 'official' report to the IFA Yahoo Group, he wrote:
" A great game played in excellent spirits. The first-half ended 0-0 although if we had taken one of our numerous chances we had from close range it wouldn't have! Kingstonian always looked dangerous on the break, and we paid for our lack of goal scoring in the second half. The key moment of the game I thought was at 1-0 up, a superb close range save from Andy in the Ks goal stopped us going 2-0 up, which I think would possibly have killed it off. It was 1-1 a couple of minutes later, some slack marking allowed Ks to score a second from a corner, and as we pushed for an equaliser, they broke to be four on one and score the third with a minute to go!"

For those of you who are wondering, the IFA Yahoo Group is how you post fixtures and results. If you don't post the details of the game beforehand you cannot gain any points, and cannot post it retrospectively. Most teams include a little report, like this one, when posting the result; and the away team often reply to it.

Thanks to Chris Tabrett, who has kindly done a report of the match. Here is what he had to say:

"This game is always a familiar battle between the opposition as we have played them numerous times beofre in the past. The first half was a tight half with few chances with a few balls over the top for the two strikers to run onto, but the Kingstonian keeper came out and collected each time. This was until an awkward back pass was booted into the pathway of Gary Tabrett, but the referee quickly blew up for 'handball', when it clearly wasn't, but we didn't complain. There were a couple more chances for 'The Rabblers', with the ball getting played over the top to Matthew Virgo, which had a bit too much pace on it, but he never stopped running for the ball. The only chance I remember that Kingstonian had in the first half was a well hit shot to the right side of the goal but stand-in keeper Andy tucker pulled off a great save that any keeper would be proud of. Kingstonian did not have any chances in the eighteen yard box as the 'Rabblers' back line was too strong. At half time it finished 0-0. The second half there were no changes to the team and we were expecting more of the same. As the game went on it opened up a bit more. 'The Rabblers' goal came around the hour mark with a piece of brilliance from Matthew Virgo who hit a low, hard cross-shot across the face of goal to set up strike partner Gary Tabrett with an easy finish. Advantage to the 'Rabblers'. Then Kingstonian started to pile the pressure but the back line was coping well with some great challenges by Lawrence Marsh, Phil Baker and Ferenc Morath which kept the game at one nil. This was until Kingstonian equalised with a header from a well taken corner. With the score now level Kingstonian piled on more pressure and got the second goal through a couple of scrappy clearances where they took full advantage with a shot that couldn't be saved right in the corner of the goal. In the last five minutes Dulwich Hamlet pushed everyone forward and had a couple of half chances before Kingstonian broke away on the counter attack with a cross swung in from the side of the pitch with a great finish from a volley. So the game finished 3-1, but I think the result flattered Kingstonian. I think everyone today played very well and showed a lot of heart and never stopped.
Team: Andy Tucker; Lawrence Marsh; Phil Baker; Ferenc Morath; Chris Garrett; James O'Shaughnessy (Phil Doyle); Chris Tabrett (Dawn Taylor); Jack McInroy; Kublai Hoare; Matthew Virgo; Gary Tabrett (Mark Hutton).
Goalscorer: Gary Tabrett.

And finally here's what they thought(from the Kingstonian messageboard!):

Lesmundo(Le fox in le box): "Well done to all the lads who played on Saturday! We were easily the better side and if we had not have won it would have been a huge injustice. "
Simon M: "Thought everyone played well on Saturday...I enjoyed playing centre back, but happy to move back out wide when Gary & Damo are back...definitely echo the words on Ben, Alex and Sam, without them we'd only have had 8, and they all did really well"
Simon B: "It has been a difficult start to the season for the K's supporters team but on saturday it all came together and an excellant TEAM performance resulted in a 3-1 win against our old friends Dulwich Hamlet. The game was very even in the first half and went in 0-0 at half time. Dulwich took the lead before Lesmundo equalised with a sweet finish. We took control of the game from here and it was no surprise that we scored a second, the only surprise being Foley scored and it wasn't a pen. We saved the best till last as Lemundo beat a man on the half way line and sprinted down the right wing and put a beautiful cross over for Ben Duddy to volley home with ease. A big thank you and well done to the 11 that made it and as Les and Si mentioned, Alex, Sam and Ben who were recruited at 9 o'clock Friday night and were brilliant. To finish, Dulwich gave our MOM to Lesmundo."

Thanks to Chris & Andy for their contributions, & I hope the Ks fans don't mind me plundering their messageboard!
For future games feel free to email me your match reports, I am more than happy to publish more than one if a few
of you are keen! Just email them to either myself, or Andy Tucker, & he will forward them on to me.

1 comment:

OWC Reserves said...

Hope you dont mind me replying Sorry about the handball issue, with no linesmen only 3 people on the park could know for sure, the goalkeeper, a defender side on and the player concerned, from my view i seen the ball strike between the arm and the chest but no 3D view of it so it could have been either or both at the same time, both the keeper and defender immediately shouted which is an indicator with no linesmen and such an important decision they tend to go to the defending side - sorry if i got it wrong and i do appreciate the great sportsmanship where not a single player came up to me to question the judgement call thats why its always a pleasure to ref you guys. The ref!