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1st XI v ESPOIRS CEYRATOIS
3rd NOVEMBER 2012
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Yes, believe it or not, after all the years that I have been following the local football club, this is the first time that I've actually been to a Pionsat night match away from home. I missed the matches at Lapeyrouse when they were in the same division as Pionsat, and since St Gervais installed their floodlights they've either been up or down.
And what a drive too - God knows how many miles the other side of Clermont Ferrand. What on earth is a team from Ceyrat doing in a pool with Pionsat? It makes something of a mockery of the term "local football".
Anyway, here we are. A 20:00 kick-off at Ceyrat and we have something of a makeshift team, and no Franck the trainer either. You can't expect people doing shop work until 19:00 at Montlucon to make it all the way down here for 20:00
François in goal - a back four of Frédéric, Alex, Sébastien and Pierre. A midfield of Fabien, Julien, William and Nico, with the other Julien and Christophe in the attack. Just Vincent on the bench, althoug he's joined by Matthieu Sikorsky about 5 or so minutes after kick-off.
I should perhaps also mention that, just like at Clermont the other week we are playing on a synthetic pitch. It seems to be all the rage these days.
Rather surprisingly, it's Pionsat that opens the scoring.
They win a corner and Christophe pumps a high one right into the centre of the penalty area but one of the Ceyrat defenders reaches the ball first and heads it clear.
Only as far as a Pionsat midfielder though, who lobs if right back into the centre of the goalmouth where Julien, with quite a high acrobatic kick, gets onto the end of it and volleys it straight into the goal past a surprised Ceyrat keeper, not to mention in front of a surprised crowd.
That really was an excellent goal and Julien did so well to make contact with the ball there.
As we line up for the restart I can't help but notice that we have an electronic scoreboard here at the ground. It seems to be worked remotely too as Pionsat's goal was marked up pretty quickly, and when the game was stopped for an injury or something, the clock was stopped too.
Yes, what with the synthetic pitch, electronic scoreboard, even a clubhouse with tables and chairs, ohh how the other half lives, hey?
15 minutes later, Ceyrat equalise with some of the nicest football that I have ever seen in a match at this level.
It all starts about 25 yards in front of their own goal where they win possession and play the ball out and all the way down the Pionsat right flank with a magnificent display of one-touch football involving five or six players.
Played down to the Pionsat bye-line the ball is squared (with one touch) right across the goalmouth where a Ceyrat player running in on the far side, taps home (with one touch) from 15 yards out.
This was a really beautiful move - one of the best that I've seen at this level of football and any neutral supporter would have said that the goal was well-deserved after all of that.
So at the restart William (who had been wearing n°12) comes to sit on the bench and Matthieu (wearing n°11) comes on and I suspect that this was the original line-up as planned had Matthieu been there on time.
We don't have parity for very long though - just 10 minutes in fact.
One of the Pionsat midfielders pumps a high ball right into the Ceyrat penalty area and puts the defence under all kinds of pressure. They are in a state of total panic, can't clear their lines and in the end lose possession on the left-hand edge of the penalty area.
Christophe wins possession of the ball and passes inside to Julien. He has a good shot at goal, trying to go over the top of the keeper, but it's well-blocked.
In circumstances such as this, the ball can go anywhere and knowing Pionsat's luck it would usually go somewhere out of danger, but just for once the ball drops comfortably back at Julien's feet and he beats the keeper quite comfortably. Mind you, I do have to say that for the last 10 minutes or so a Pionsat goal has been looking most unlikely.
The Ceyrat trainer is leaping up and down on the bench, screaming at his team "vous faites n'importe quoi" - "you're playing a load of rubbish", and not without justification either.
From the kick-off the ball is played forward into the Pionsat half but despite the best efforts of one of the Pionsat defenders, he loses possession of the ball and in doing so, clips the heels of the Ceyrat attacker.
Pionsat put three in the wall to protect the near post from the free kick but the Ceyrat player curls the ball beautifully round the wall and down to the bottom corner.
A diving François does really well to get down to the ball and parries it away onto the legs of an onrushing forward and, just for a change given the luck that Pionsat usually has in circumstances like this, the ball bounces out across the bye-line for a goal kick.
And for a change from the last 10 minutes or so Pionsat launch another attack on the Ceyrat goal. They race down the field with the ball and with some beautiful movements Julien passes the ball out to Christophe who passes the ball back into the centre for Matthieu who backheels it back out to Christophe.
Christophe makes the right decision by going over the top of the keeper who has advanced well off his line for no good purpose, but his lob hits one of the Ceyrat defenders on the back of the head (and the defender knew nothing about that) and the ball goes out for a throw-in.
We have a disaster up at the Pionsat end. The ball is driven in hard into the penalty area and hits one of the defenders on the arms. No doubt that it was accidental but the referee deems that it denies the Ceyrat team an advantage and so awards the penalty.
The kick is well-taken but François guesses correctly which way the ball is going and makes an absolutely excellent stop. He gets both hands to the ball and pushes it away for a corner.
That's twice that François has come to the rescue of his team with an excellent save.
Half-time comes up just after this and I wander off for a coffee in the luxury of a well-furnished club-house. Chatting to the hostess in there, I learn that this is Ceyrat's 3rd XI and apparently the 1st and 2nd XIs aren't all that much to write home about.
I also learn some bad news too. I asked Bernard where Cedric was - it's not like him to miss a game - and he tells me that Cedric is injured. He has a pubelgie or something like that, whatever that might be, and that has put an end to his season. That's bad news for the club. They have been struggling to score goals this season as it is.
Anyway the second half is under way and we start with Pionsat once more on the attack.
There's a beautiful ball right over the top of the defence which sets Christophe through down the right-hand side of the field. He bursts through the defence, brushing off a series of ineffective challenges and has a shot at goal.
The keeper does really well to get down to the and parry it out to safety as you can see.
Christophe races after the loose ball and drives it back across the face of the goal and one of the Pionsat players has a shot at the unguarded net but a Ceyrat defender clears it off the line at the very last minute.
And now we have a problem. Apparently the referee has been taken ill in the middle of the match and he's obliged to leave the field. That leaves us with an interesting conundrum. What is going to happen now?
Anyway, a few minutes later he comes back out and it looks as if play will continue, even though he's looking rather shaky. And while all of this was going on, Bernard takes the opportunity to withdraw Nico for a rest and William goes back out.
It seems that the break has done more good to Ceyrat than it has to Pionsat, for they go back up the field and equalise.
A full-blooded shot into the penalty area from one of the Ceyrat attackers hits one of the Pionsat defenders full in the midriff. The ball could have rebounded anywhere at all but of course it has to roll right into the path of an unmarked Ceyrat forward about 6 yards out, doesn't it? François had no chance with that shot from that kind of range.
One of the advantages of the electronic scoreboard is that one can see at a glance exactly whereabouts in the match we are and so, with 7 minutes to go, Christophe, who has been looking rather tired this last few minutes, leaves the field and gives Vincent an opportunity to stake his claim for the empty attacker's berth now that Cedric is unavailable.
Another thing about this electronic scoreboard is, as I have said, there's someone stopping the clock every time there's a stoppage in play. When the ref was off the field, the clock was stopped but he didn't seem to think so for we played probably 7 or 8 minutes of extra time, mystery time and Manchester United time before he blew the whistle. I haven't a clue why.
However, in the time that we have left there isn't much action. The referee finally blows his whistle and that is that. The game peters out to a draw.
As for the match itself, Ceyrat were the better team, although Pionsat only having a scratch side out might have had something to do with that. Ceyrat were however pretty wayward at times and the accuracy of the shooting of their forwards was woeful.
Pionsat rode their luck with a considerable amout of help from François, and won a badly-needed point. It won't drag them higher up the table as the rest of the results went against them, but at least they didn't drop behind, and that's good news.
As for the future though, it remains to be seen just how bad Cedric's injury is. Losing the team's principal marksman for the rest of the season when they are already struggling isn't going to help matters.
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