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3rd XI v ST ANGEL 31st JANUARY 2009
We started off tonight with a minute's silence for a player with the Clermont Foot team - a young lad of 23 - who had collapsed and died after a game of football last week. It just goes to show that it can happen to anyone at any time. But once that issue had been resolved, the football got iunder way.
As usual with the Pionsat 3rd XI, it was a strange team. Just 11 players, no substitutes, one or two guys I don't recall seeing before, and the 1st team trainer keeping goal. Chapeau to him for volunteering. Yes, definitely a makeshift team.
But that notwithstanding, the Pionsat team ran riot for the first 5 or 10 minutes and created all kinds of mayhem and panic down the left wing with a whole series of desperate clearances into touch from a worried St Angel defence.
This sustained Pionsat pressure at one stage brought a beautiful cross in from the left at just about ankle height. It was just about half an inch too far in front of the Pionsat attacker which was just as well for the St Angel keeper. He did really well to get to the ball and hang on tight just as Pionsat forward arrived.
It was an excellent move, and Pionsat were desperately unlucky not to have opened the scoring.
This was another Damian special - Damian being the ... er ... powerful no11 who likes to wallop a good curling shot in on goal. This time unfortunately it was straght down the keeper's throat. It was worth a try though.
As an aside, the St Angel keeper is about 3 inches shorter than me and I gave up goalkeeping in the 1970s because at 5 feet 9inches (175cms) I was too short.
Not loing after that we had a rare St Angel attack that finished with an absolutely blistering drive from just outside the penalty area. Pionsat's keeper just about managed to get his fingertips to the ball and tip it over the bar for a corner. He did well here - nicely positioned for the shot.
If you look at the edge of the photo you can see how far the ball has travelled in the time it took me to press the shutter.
From a free kick, the ball flew across goal and was headed on twice. It finally arrived at Damian, who got onto the end of it and whacked it in The keeper just got down to it and clearly bundled it out round the post for a corner - and Bernard the referee blew for a goal kick! Damain was furious and I reckoned that he might have had a case.
Mind you, the free kick was something that was so embarrassing. The St Angel defender clearly and cleanly won the ball and the Pionsat attacker fell over in the challenge. Bernard, who is not the quickest mover up and down the field, was a long way behind play when the event occurred. Even the Pionsat players needed some convincing that they had won a free kick and not a throw in.
And as you might expect, with all of the play up in the St Angel half, there's a goal at the Pionsat end. A St Angel attacker in some space for a change tried to go round the keeper. The keeper made a desperate lunge at the ball, missed, and brought down the St Angel attacker. It was so unnecessary too, as the St Angel player had pushed the ball too far and was never likely to catch it. The St Angel player could have easily stepped over the keeper, but in fairness, why should he?
It was a clear penalty but Bernard, down by the half-way line, took a good while to make up his mind.
Not long afterwards, Pionsat won what can best be described as a "fortunate" penalty. I was much closer to the play than Bernard and I wouldn't have given it.
Neither would the two St Angel players involved in the action, judging by the remarks they made to Bernard after the kick had been taken and the goal had been scored. It was two-on-one in the penalty area going for a 50-50 ball, and I reckoned it may have been 60-40. Still, the referee's word is final and all the goals are good ones.
Pionsat were still well on the attack and there were some moments of excellent football when you consider the level at which this game is being played.
This was a lovely crossfield ball which played Xavier, the no8, onside. An excellent cross, an excellent decision by the linesman to play on, and an excellent shot across the goal that only just went wide.
St Angel were quite frankly awful. Only down the right wing did they have any kind of idea and that wasn't all that much. Had they been able to put the Pionsat keeper under any pressure they might have managed to do something but that was never likely to happen
This was a speculative shot from distance and the Pionsat keeper did really well to keep it out. He palmed it out and downwards, but it landed on his foot and rolled out for a corner.
A word about the keeper. It's clear that he hasn't done much in the way of goalkeeping. He needed a kicker for the goal kicks (I'm not sure why because I could kick farther than that and I've broken my knee three times) and he had an ... er ... original style of kicking out of his hands. I noticed that his first couple of clearances were perhaps shorter than his colleagues were anticipating but as the match wore on he was becoming more accustomed to doing it and by the end of the match he was making the halfway line.
He didn't have much to do, and he coped quite well with what was asked of him and you can't wish for any more than that.
But Pionsat will look on this match as 2 points dropped rather than 1 point won. And if St Angel can select a couple of guys who are 58 and who play like it as well as look like it, I might be tempted to bring myself out of retirement it this player recruitment crisis at Pionsat doesn't improve.
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