Kudos to the team and especially to Allan

You may have already read this report in the local free paper the CoastRider.

A week ago on Monday, the CoastRider 5-a-side squad arrived at Camping Marjal with a steely determination, and instilled with a quiet confidence. After one narrow defeat and one thrashing, we were hellbent on preventing a trilogy of misery. There was a no-show from the mosquitoes, sending out a clear message that they had lost faith in our abilities. Our opponents this week were a team from the Bigastro Villa Andrea urbanisation, and we were rather perturbed to discover they actually had a manager. With our opponents having a squad of six compared to our eight, we decided to play six-a-side. This was our suggestion, disguised as an altruistic notion of allowing all their team to take part. In reality, we were hedging our bets by denying our challengers the option of a fresh pair of legs. In our pre-match group huddle we agreed on our tactics. There would be no offside traps, diamond formations or sweeper systems. We would rely on good old-fashioned shouting. And it paid dividends.

After five minutes of constant bellowing we were two goals up. It also helped to have our secret weapon in prime form. Tommy Cahill’s combination of youth, speed and skill was too much for the opposition to handle. A plethora of silky runs and deadly finishing saw Tommy net four goals in the first half. Of course, he was also helped in no small part by our ceaseless yelling.

The second half followed a similar pattern to the first, with both sides creating a host of chances.Villa Andrea were strong, competent and showed great teamwork but lacked the killer touch to score. Our side, on the other hand, finally found our finishing, with Tommy grabbing a further two and Jason Worland scoring two. This was achieved with a reduction in shouting as our throats had become hoarse from our first half exertions. Even I found myself one-on-one with the goalkeeper yet decided to misplace a pass to the right, feeling that losing possession was a little less embarrassing than skying a shot way over the bar.

In fairness, our 8 – 0 victory wasn’t a true reflection of the game. If Villa Andrea had a striker of the calibre of our Tommy Cahill it would have been a much closer match. Towards the end of the game, our opponents looked the stronger and put together a string of good moves. One of the stars of the game was Villa Andrea’s Allan White, who used to play professionally for Chelsea in the Tommy Doherty days. At 67 years of age, his fitness, strength and quick footwork caused our defence many problems. CoastRider’s Barry Wright paid him due respect in the first half by kicking lumps out of him at every opportunity. At one point, our Steve Verity’s competitive edge got out of control when he kicked his team mate, Dan Holmes, up the backside for failing to stay on his feet after being tackled. Dan took in it in good spirit and was soon perfecting his trademark pirouetting panache as he avoided challenge after challenge, culminating in a mazy run and a shot that went inches wide. Another mention needs to be made of our young debutante, Laurence Frost, who was solid and competent in defence. His father, Darren, played the role of referee, yet nepotism failed to cloud his judgement.

So, the CoastRider boys had finally tasted victory and positively stank of success. All except Dan, who couldn’t quite rid himself of the aroma of fetid sweat which had impregnated his fingers from his old pair of goalkeeper gloves. We were buoyant and already looking forward to our next match. To borrow a phrase from Stuart Pearce, coined as the manager of Nottingham Forest back in the late nineties, the CoastRider 5-a-side team had finally seen the carrot at the end of the tunnel. At the end of the game, the players from Villa Andrea Urbanisation generously donated 100 euros to the Cruz Roja Ambulance Appeal.