TWFC

There were only eight of us and no Atletiko Madrid Guests so we split into reasonably evenly matched sides of four against four. That said the side with me in it can find itself at a disadvantage because I am also keeping score and writing the match report in between taking rests.

Barkball came into the fixture with an unbeaten run since his debut which threatens to challenge records set by Scott and the legendary Marty in years gone by. At the start of the match odds were slashed on the possibility of Barkball maintaining his record longer than Guus Hiddink.

We kicked off with each side playing stick keeper and three outfield players.

The open spaces on the pitch allowed Barkball to work with Danny and Kaichan to cut through the Bibs and convert with clinical accuracy. Ben was not in favour of the formation and mooted the idea that the keepers might be allowed to come out of their areas and play as sweepers. Players seemed to like this; but a rose by any other name is still a rose.

Ben was identified as trying to covertly introduce rush keeper part way through a four-a-side match.

This was immediately challenged and his supporters were sternly informed that it was “not good enough”, “TWFC strikers should expect to come to every match ready to hone their skills of beating a regular keeper and not shooting into open nets”. Players were asked what grass roots football was coming to? and how could the nation expect to win major trophies if a whole generation advocated playing rush keeper to make it easier to score goals? In amongst this hair dryer style tirade a voice was heard to philosophically call out “Yes we are all in it together”. It is not known how the political slogan was relevant or who said it (perhaps the Philosophy Spirit inhabiting the Garden End is growing in strength) but it served to unite players in resolving to continue with proper keepers.

JakeFlowers, the other half of the 2016 joint holders of the Goal Machine accolade, set about demonstrating how to beat a keeper and between himself and Eddie01, who went on to score at least a hat trick, they kept the Bibs’ score at least respectable.

In the last match Ram, from the Atletiko Madrid Guests, was told off for playing gratuitous samba freestyle football when all that the Muftis required was Leicester style functional play resulting in goals. This week the Muftis played pure King Power. The Muftis’ game was beautiful in its resilience, simplicity and accuracy. The Muftis simply maintained a lead requiring the Bibs to press up pitch following which Barkball, Danny and Kaichan would take turns running the ball forwards and opening up the opposition before passing to a finisher to score past the keeper.

It is difficult to remember when a team led by JonF has been so clinically opened up.

Out of respect to the administrators of our home ground we had agreed to finish on 9pm this evening. As the clock struck 9pm the score was 15 – 7 to the Muftis. By this point both Ben and Eddie01 were carrying niggles and the match ended. JonF was observed shaking his head and heard to mutter disparaging comments about the plays that might have been the source of his player’s injuries but it had been a clean match so his comments were treated as more passion than a true statement of facts.

Match awarded to the Muftis 15 – 7.

Things to Note

The floodlights were switched off at 9:06pm plunging us into darkness. The plus side to this is we may now have a time keeper which will help determine when the night ends in case we forget. All hail the controllers of the light.
The fees go up to £25 per week from April 2016. This is still cheaper than many other pitches and still cheaper than what we were paying prior to Johnny’s 2014 review of the accounts. All hail our founders.
Barkball’s unbeaten record marches on as does Guus Hiddink’s. All hail The Invincibles (did I really just say that? Time to stop.)

Let’s do it all again next Wednesday. Getting booking at http://cbdatabases.com/twfc.