Vets v Double H

The first game of the season for WBFC Vets was away at Guildford. The opposition, Double ‘H’ Vets, who were promoted from the division below as the second-best club and beat the Boro Vets in the league last time they met.

The early 12pm kick-off coincided with horrible traffic on the A3, which resulted in most of our team arriving later than planned. A 11.15am meet quickly became 11:50am!

As we were getting changed like there was no tomorrow, the referee came to our dressing room to say that we would have an additional 5-10 minutes to get the team ready, which was a bit of a relief, considering that some of our players were still arriving. The referee also mentioned that “all of us are here and ready”, which prompted some worrying thoughts about his neutrality. This was proved groundless later as the refereeing was fair throughout the game.

The new gaffer Carl gave the team quite an inspiring speech before the game with an apparent message: Let’s start well and not lose the game in the first half like we did against them last time!. We also went for a new 3-5-2 formation with three attacking players in central midfield. This formation worked perfectly for us in the first half and in every line, we had a new player who joined WBFC this season. In defence, it was a debut for Vince Hamlyn; in midfield, Ivan (who played his first-ever game in amateur English football), and Robbie Burns who started upfront. On top of that, Carl was playing in goal, which was also a debut to a certain extent.

Controlling most of the possession in the opening minutes of the game, we created a couple of chances from the set pieces. One of them was converted with a good header by Phil Westcott after a flick-on from Pete Renwick at the near post (cheers Barnsey). A few minutes later, Ivan played a lovely one-two with Robbie and Ivan scored the second goal of the game. We continued to apply pressure on the opposition, with Chris and Jamie distributing the ball cleverly so more chances would come our way. The third goal came from a good combination on the right by Dejan, which resulted in Robbie’s nice lay-off for Ivan. It was an easy goal to score and we were up 3-0 and still in second gear. At this point, the opposition realised that they were getting outplayed in central midfield, and they tried to make it tighter there. However, it didn’t really help Double ‘H’, as our following goals came from flanks. Firstly, Sean Jackson crossed from the right, and Robbie scored. A few minutes later, Donald Stone crossed from the left, and Robbie scored his second.

A five-goal advantage at half-time was deserved, but I forgot to mention a critical feature of that afternoon, It was bloody hot out there: 30+ degrees, no shade and no wind at all. In such conditions, both teams were destined to struggle in the second half.

As expected, the second half started slow and Double ‘H’ certainly had the better of the ball first 10-15min. You could see both teams starting to fatigue which lead to a few sloppy mistakes and on 75min the ref pointed to the spot. Penalty to Double ‘H’. Up stepped the oppos best player (no8), placed the ball down and went to bend a worldie in to the top corner. Unfortunately, he scuffed it and it rolled to Carl’s left hand post which he calmly poked wide. That (plus a few goal line clearances from Pete, Jacko and Charlie) allowed us to keep the clean sheet. Our defence had a great game, so we'll done for Charlie, Vince, Pete (who made a brief stint as CB) and Donald. Another vital player we must mention is Phil Murphy, who came in a substitution several times and provided our players with much-needed breaks.

Ivan was awarded the POTM, but in true Ivan fashion, he felt like most of the credit should have gone to Robbie who scored two goals and two assists.

Great start and let’s try to make this season a special one. UTB!