 | FOOTBALL CLUB |
| FOOTBALL CLUB |
THE FARM
MY LIFESTYLE
ON MY TRAVELS
There are more links at the top and bottom of each page.
These concern the administration of the site, but you should visit them just the same.
SITE SPONSORS
please support them
You can contact me to order a full-size high-quality image.
E si vous voulez commander une image en plein dimensions et á haute qualité
Please if you would like to add anything to the text of each image or to correct an error.
Si vous avez des choses á ajouter, ou vous voudriez corriger quelque chose que j'ai écrit,
3RD XI v HERMENT 21st FEBRUARY 2009
After several weeks of enforced absence due to a heavy snowfall that hung around for a while we found ourselves back in action on Saturday night. Pionsat's 3rd XI is playing AS Herment on a damp, wet and muddy pitch. But it could be worse.
The match started with Pionsat on the attack. A good long kick into the Herment half saw a lovely bit of interplay between a couple of Pionsat attackers down the right wing. This led to a firm shot on goal and the keeper did well to dive to his right and push the ball out for a corner.
But at least there was plenty of cover in the Herment defence. As well as the keeper there are two other defenders back there helping out. This team didn't look like it was going to be a pushover.
A few minutes later Pionsat won a free kick - the award of which was disputed at great length by a couple of Herment defenders who expressed their displeasure at Michel who was refereeing tonight.
The decision stood (of course) and the resultant free kick was floated cleverly into the box. A Herment defender got to it first and headed it out for another corner.
There's never very much chance of persuading a referee to change his mind (although at this level of football anything is possible) but it's a spot of gamesmanship to put the referee on the back foot for the next decision.
Meanwhile back at the other end, disaster strikes. A well-worked ball right down the centre of the Pionsat defence finds the central defenders conspicuous by their absence and a Herment attacker conspicuous by his presence.
The keeper who had rushed from his line to try to block the shot was left stranded in no-man's land (or no-person's land for the benefit of readers from OUSA). He should never have come for it as he was never going to make it but in fairness no-one else from the defence was interested in making it either.
And look who the keeper is. It's Damian, the guy who normally plays no11. Such is the crisis in team selection here that he was playing in goal. He was extremely vocal too, shouting commands and instructions at the team - something that is missing from any Pionsat team that I've ever witnessed. Good on you, Damian!
A couple of minutes later there'e another Herment attack with a long ball down the centre of the field. Damian in goal does well to block the shot and the ball filters out wide. The Herment right-winger puts in a decent cross and Damian does well to grab it and hang on.
The central defence pairing for the Pionsat 3rd XI by the way is Lord Lucan and Martin Bormann. I bet you are glad that I told you that.
A couple of minutes later Pionsat manage to pull a goal back. It begins with a good move down the right side of midfield followed by a moment of head tennis between the two Pionsat forwards. It concludes with a good shot on the volley that leaves the Herment keeper with no chance at all.
I don't recognise these forwards from the 3rd team. I know that there has been some reorganisation of the squads and the 2nd team had a few different players in it last week so I'm wondering if these are perhaps from the 2nd XI.
Early in the second half Pionsat much to everyone's surprise take the lead. It's from a lovely long ball downfield that's played intelligently to beat the offside trap and one of the quick Pionsat forwards runs onto it and sidefoots it past the keeper for a good goal.
I've not seen the Pionsat 3rd XI play as quickly as this up front so I reckon there must have been some juggling around of the teams.
Meanwhile there's some more shambolic defending in the Pionsat penalty area. It's not just sham defending, the defending is all the rest of it. There's nice interchange of play by the Herment attack playing the ball around the edge of the Pionsat penalty area and the shot goes in past a rather static keeper.
The problem with the defence is that it's being pulled out of position every time the ball is being played in and the midfielders aren't getting back to plug the gaps left in the defence. It happens every time.
In fact it happens again just a few minutes later. Another nice interchange of play on the left side of the central defence and the ball is then played infield with a shot once more past the keeper and Herment go back in front.
One of the central defenders then went over to the keeper to ... er ... discuss the keeper's positioning sense. The technical name for this is "pot calling kettle black". I can tell you where the keeper was - he was playing in goal. It's all very well for people to criticise the keeper but Damian is not the most athletic of figures and keeping goal is a specialist position. So when you don't have a keeper which means that an outfield player has to play there you can't expect a championship performance.
Before the final whistle we were treated (if that's the word) to a weird and surreal pattern of ballplay by the Pionsat defence that looked like everyone had changed ends without telling the keeper. Everyone was passing the ball around behind the back line for a good 30 secoinds. I had no idea what was going on there.
Pionsat can be disappointed with losing this game. Herment are second in the table so no-one here was expecting a favourable result but they came so close to pulling it off. They are only short of a keeper, a commanding centre-half and a midfielder and they could have a comfortable team.
Back to the footy page
Il y a sans doute des francophones qui aimeraient lire cette page en français. Donc vous devez m'aider á á la traduire!
En plus, si vous avez des choses á ajouter,
home page | latest updates | site map | site index
about this site | audience participation | copyright notice | technical issues | accessibility statement | read this | contact me
©