7pm kick-off for our first fixture on Monday night. Players should note they’re to limit their alcohol intake to pints after work on Friday, all day Saturday and a few quiet ones on Sunday. Alcohol is strictly forbidden from 9pm on Sunday night onwards until kick-off. We can win this.
Fucking huge game tomorrow! Haven’t pulled on the Emerald Green for about 4 months and my heart is thumping at the thought of leading us into battle tomorrow.
Jugs says he’s out for tomorrow night with a knee injury sustained playing in a work tournament last week. All these injuries are in this weiner’s head. I kept goal last season with a broken wrist for 2 games and with genital warts for several others. I just wish others had that same commitment.
TFK sent out a statement tonight with a magnificent 9-1 victory over some other cunts. It was a really end-to-end game except we completely dominated and were camped out in their half for the entire match.
cesc4 was at his clinical best grabbing 4 goals, with the scoring completed by Ledge (2 on his full debut), and 1 each for the returning Rocko, Stevie G and Tinnion. Indeed it was Tinnion who got the critical goal to make it 3-0 after about 20 minutes - ‘the match winner’, as he called it.
They say it’s a sign of an excellent 'keeper when he’s nothing to do for most of the game yet still makes important saves on the rare occasions he’s called upon. I was beaten by their only attempt on target in the second half.
We’re surely top of the league after Week 1 and that is where we’ll stay.
Superb result tonight and just reward for the flowing, attractive football we played throughout.
Credit to the six who started the game and such was the show of strength that we didn’t even call on the bench once during the match as the screw was turned on our hapless opponents.
The match was nearly ruined for me by a deliberate handball from Stevie G near the end that was born out of laziness and a bad attitude but credit to all others involved who worked tirelessly all night.
Hard to see us being caught now with only 21 games to go.
Fair play lads, great result. Such a pity there was no clean sheet though.
True Mac. The only way I can be beaten is in from a 1 vs 1 when the ball’s drilled or poked through my legs. I adopt the Boruc star jump routine as discussed here (http://thefreekick.com/vbforum/showthread.php?t=2253&page=2&highlight=artur+boruc) but the shot was flashed through my legs tonight. Tinnion’s fault though obviously.
Player Ratings:
Bandage - 6.5 made one decent stop in the first half where he pushed the ball over the bar at 0-0 or 1-0 so it was an important stage of the game. Thereafter he had little to do except make himself available for back passes. Will be disappointed to have been beaten from such an acute angle.
Tinnion - 4 gave the ball away twice in the space of two minutes at the start of the second half after we’d spent the entire interval emphasising the importance of retaining possession. Was overly ambitious with a couple of long passes but generally defended competently. Until the goal that was. Showed the attacker down the outside but failed to pursue him with any sort of enthusiasm and left Bandage badly exposed. One to forget.
Rocko © 8 - the glue that held it all together last night. The returning captain was an inspiration. Stoic, often heroic defending was allied to clever use of the ball and the skipper grabbed the crucial fourth goal just before the interval - always a good time to score. Football was played the [I]TFK Way/I last night and much of that was down to Rocko’s tactics.
Stevie G 6 - ran his little heart out on his debut but things just didn’t quite work out for him. Got himself a goal in the second half when the game was as good as over which will hopefully have helped his confidence for the tougher tests that lie ahead. Tried to do the right thing at least, just let himself down with sloppy execution.
Ledge 6 - the self-proclaimed King of the Dragback had a mixed night on his full competitive debut since making his loan deal a permanent one over the summer. Got himself a couple of goals but a more composed striker would surely have helped himself to a couple more. One woeful shot at the start of the second half summed up his frustrations at that point but he recovered well.
Cesc 7 - four goals is a fair return and no matter what little else Cesc contributed around the pitch if he gets four every week he’ll earn his keep in the squad. The workrate was better than expected and a couple of his finishes were even bordering on impressive. A good start with more to come hopefully.
Fair enough ratings Rocko but I would have increased your score by a notch or two and docked everyone else by one. I put the score up on the astro site last night so all the other sides would be intimidated by it as they log on to input their own scores today. Just laying down a true psychological marker.
By the end of the season this will probably be the only score they’ve entered http://www.thefreekick.com/board/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif
Still can’t believe they didnt keep a clean sheet.