TWFC

Welcome back everyone and I hope that you have a happy 2016. When I Iast wrote Jose Mourinho was in charge at Chelsea, Rafa Benitez was in charge of Real Madrid and Adrian held the title of TWFC Goal Machine. Now Mourinho and Benitez have been ousted and our Goal Machine title has passed to the joint pair of AlMaher and JakeFlowers. What is a Goal Machine you might ask? Well it is a player who week in week out can receive the ball and bang it into the net with the minimum of effort. Feed the machine and he will score. A sort of modern day Gary Lineker, a Wayne Rooney or a Miroslav Klose.

Anyway back to 6 Jan 2016.

Seven TWFC faithful turned up tonight and our ranks were further swelled by the inclusion of three players from Atletiko Madrid Guests (AMG) who were looking for a match. Having beaten AMG just before Christmas we split them up, the player Mus joined the Bibs; his team mates joined Avvon, Ben and JakeFlowers. This was the equivalent of creating a Muftis team with Vardy, Lukaku, Kane, Mahrez and Sterling in it. The Bibs welcomed back Richshep who last graced our fixture on 5 May 2015 .

From kick off players seemed to be warming themselves up until Richshep seized the ball, jinked past the opposition defence and smashed it home to score the first goal of the year. He repeated this feat again later on with the balletic grace normally associated with a Danny or a Johnny to make the score 2 – 0 to the Bibs.

New year, same old Garden End. Avvon received the ball on the left flank, there did not seem to be much on but an innocuous shot from him took a slight deflection and the match changed. The keeper believes he saw the ball hit the underside of the bar by the right upright then bounce on the line before he retrieved it and the game went on. Later on in the match the opposition firmly claimed that Avvon’s shot had in fact hit the back corner of the net. The Garden End remains the source of much bewilderment and either optical illusion or mass hypnosis as sometimes it is difficult for players to truly agree what has happened. Anyway the Muftis had got one goal back possibly through Jake and this coupled with Avvon’s earlier goal, awarded retrospectively, brought the score to 2 – 2. The game became more competitive. Despite drawing level the Muftis were not able to pull ahead. Avvon was terrorising the Bibs and eventually brought up a well deserved hat-trick.

Scott was resolute in midfield. Ben was later heard to describe Scott’s control of the edge of the defence in the most glowing terms as even he found himself unable to score.

JonF was having a field day suddenly being paired with a striker who would open up the opposition and play one – twos with him. It is possible that we have not seen him express himself like this since the days of Nathan before his injury or Tim before his transfer to Ipswich. Set free to boss the match JonF and Richshep enjoyed putting away goals. Scott weighed in with one of his own and Mus added at least two himself.

The Muftis operated a lone striker as one of the Atletiko Madrid Guests stayed up front by himself. They were rewarded with some goals until Ben, now in goal, finally snapped and demanded to know why the lone striker would not track back? In frustration he even apparently strongly enquired why was he standing to one side fiddling? Crestfallen, and told off, the loan striker shuffled back into his own half.

Only the heroics of a succession of Muftis’ keepers kept the match close. The Bibs were ahead something like 9 – 7 when the next team arrived in their cars. Curiously the newcomers did not come to the pitch so the match continued. Though it felt like the end of the evening there were still a good few minutes to go. By the time the other team began to move to the gate it was 11 – 9 to the Bibs. ‘Two minutes more’ the unofficial timekeepers shouted. Two minutes was long enough for the match to swing either way still. Niyi implored Scott to work his calming magic and help ensure that the Bibs did not lose their two goal advantage in the dying seconds of the match. Scott duly obliged, the Muftis kept coming, JonF and Richshep fell further back to defend from the midfield. Even Mus accepted that there was no room for any more freestyling. Suddenly the Bibs broke away and Richshep threaded the ball to JonF on the left, it was Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving for Jon as he put the ball past the opposing keeper to end the evening.

Match awarded to the Orange Bibs 12 – 9.

Things to Note

Please note the above new and updated email list.
Our pitch is unavailable next Wednesday 13/01/2016 as Spurs are at home to Leicester again.

Avvon continues a cruel run of gritty performances at Tottenham without finishing on the winning side. On a positive note he is still over dozen matches away from equalling Gareth Bale’s tally. And we all know what became of Bale.