TWFC

Hamse98 is making a name for himself as unflappable under pressure and entered club folklore when he calmly supplied that ball for Naz's last second match winner on 27 July.

Steve is the club's first choice goal keeper.

Facing that side left Orange Bibs knowing that to achieve victory would need reverting to the fundamentals of strategic game management in the style of football managers of bygone days.

Before the match started the Orange Bibs announced that the referee's decision would be final and only the captains should approach the referee.

A Mufti player responded by being adamant that he would find a way to talk whatever he felt to the referee regardless. The Orange Bibs advised that he must therefore take on the role of captain of his side. First pre-match skirmish, the Orange Bibs had set the rules and selected the opposition's captain.

An Orange Bib's player asked about kick off and was given the wrong time by a Mufti, this could have led to him arriving at half time. A further Orange Bibs player actually did not arrive at all, so who knows what other misinformation was shared prior to kick off. Fortunately MarkA, who was down to ref the game, kindly pulled on an Orange Bib and played.

Fired up by the opposition's pre-match antics the Orange Bibs hatched a strategy to contain the Mufti and play to the referee. An onlooker will notice that the strategy was to keep a wealth of players between the team of match ball winners and the goal and then play counterattacking football. This strategy can be defined as the noble art of closing down and harrying.

The first two goals were subject of speculation. Naz's goal beat the keeper at the near post so cleanly that it was speculated to have gone through a hole in the side netting. Footage of the shot and the net ripples have confirmed it was an accurate strike that went clinically through the keeper's legs.

JonF's equaliser for the Orange Bibs led to significant post-match analysis and debate about whether he had breached the rules prohibiting shooting from within his own half. VAR footage has been deemed necessary.

VAR decision 1

06:17 on the match clock.

A VAR line through the center spot suggests that JonF, who was travelling forward with the ball, is more likely than not to have struck it on or within the boundary of his opponent's half. VAR decision - on field referee's decision is not overturned - goal stands.

Prior to this match report Coach Hagenius, a player respected for his sagacious application of reason and commitment to fair play, gave the following judgement:

"I don’t think the goal Jon scored can be proven conclusively to be in or out his half, but we will give the benefit of the doubt to the attacking player."

Other Mufti players were somewhat less charitable about JonF's equaliser. However, it stands and JonF goes into the record books as scoring a goal struck from one of the furthest legal points on the pitch.

The Orange Bibs tactics paid dividends with Sadulla proving to be the master at harrying forward and undoing the opposition. All night long the waves of Mufti attacks were broken down by BILZ96 and VIIGeorgeVII. If anyone got past those two stalwarts then they had to deal with JonF and MarkA.

With less than 10 minutes to go the Orange Bibs had a commanding 9 - 5 lead.

This is the point when the Mufti finally began one of the most epic comebacks ever. The Mufti got the score back to 10 - 7 with minutes left to go.

There was no other team waiting to get on.
The referee duly announced when it was 5 minutes to go.
The Mufti pulled the score back to 10 - 8.
A player is heard very clearly twice saying 'last minute'.
Hagenius scored his hat-trick goal to make the score Mufti 9 - 10 Orange Bibs in the 50th minute.
Soon after the match restarted and the referee was heard to say that it was 9 pm.

The Orange Bibs embraced the news that the allotted time was up like it was their best friend arriving from the Australian Outback. There was quiet fury, from some of the Mufti, at the way the Orange Bibs ended the match immediately they heard the referee say the time was up. The convention is normally that we encroach into the next slot if we can. This time we could but it was also within the rules not to.

A momentous victory had been eked out by the Orange Bibs.

The ending of our match was slightly less controversial than the Chelsea v Spurs London Derby later that weekend.

After the match his fellow players on both sides awarded Sadulla Man of the Match.

Match ball shared between MarkA and JonF who both scored four goals. Readers are invited to watch MarkA's one minute brace at 34 minutes on the match clock where he appears to enter a zen-like state in which the opposition defence and keeper were no longer in the same game as himself.

Final Score

Mufti 9 - 10 Orange Bibs

Match awarded to the Orange Bibs

Things To Note

Gentlemen have asked for a review of

when penalties or direct free kicks should be used to penalise goal scoring opportunity fouls,
when matches reasonably end and
the abolition of the rule limiting shots from ones own half.

These will be determined over the next few days.

Let's do it all again next match at Tottenham Wednesday FC.