FC Irlande - Matchday 11

FC Irlande 4 – 1 Besace

In all my years playing football I don’t think I’ve played in more difficult conditions than those experienced last Saturday. In the days leading up to the match and Saturday itself we had large amounts of rain and snow. In addition our match followed the fourths, so our notoriously muddy pitch was in atrocious condition. From goal to goal and about ten yards in from the sideline there wasn’t a blade of grass to be seen. Just mud of varying degrees of thickness.
Despite the conditions we played some great football and dominated far more than the scoreline suggests.
There was a new partnership in midfield, the kind every man would like to see on his girlfriend’s bra. FF: Fred and Francis. They dominated like they’d been playing there for years. Around them were all the usual big guns back from injury and suspension.
After learning that short passes would be caught in the mud we began getting it out wide to Kieran and Pete and caused the defence all kinds of problems. The goal came when a cross from the left fell just inside the 18-yard box and birthday boy David cracked a thumping left-foot strike into the top corner.
The rain and snow came down, the mud seeped into every pore. At halftime, 1-0 up, we took refuge in the dressing room. Mark, deleguee for the day with an ankle injury, said we just needed more of the same. And more goals.
They came in a dominant second half performance. First Sigve powered his way down the right and fizzed a low cross in that was met by your handsome correspondent. Then the roles were reversed as I hit a cross-cum-shot into the box that got stuck in the large puddle on the goal-line. Sigve was on hand to dive into the puddle feet first and smack it home.
In between these goals Besace had a rare foray up field. A cross came in from the left and Alec was adjudged by the ref to have pushed his attacker to the ground. Chris, who had had only one real save to make up to this point, got down well, but the shot was well placed in the corner.
By this point we had reverted to a 4-4-2 formation, with Jonathan on the right and David on the left. The former saw lots of the ball, and helped bring about the corner from which David helped make the goal. As he was lining up to cross Alec was hurriedly giving instructions about who should go there. Fred just stood, nonchalantly, and suggested, “you guys run around. I’ll score.” Sure enough, over came the lofted corner to the far post to an unmarked Fred, and his sweet volley zipped into the bottom corner. 4-1.
So after a disappointing loss we bounced back in the best way possible.

FC Irlande: Chris Jones, Adrian, Christian, Alec, Kieran (Dave Barrett), Francis, Fred, Pete (Jonathan), David, Sigve, Ross

Goals: David, Ross, Sigve, Fred

Man of the Match: Fred and Sigve. Big performances from big players.