With the German�s having last week off due to Typhoon Bab�s causing the grass at Sports Institute to get damp, we went into this game hoping to maintain the winning ways achieved against White Youth. Club Wanderers, the league champions, have not had the best of starts to the season, so it was hoped another positive result would lift us even higher up the table.
The German�s made only one enforced change from the team that started against White Youth, with Andy Dixon out injured being replaced by the back from injury Andy Jeffreys.
The Germans did not start well in this game, and the first 10 minutes saw Club gain most of the possession, and in fact should have scored in the first few minutes when their striker received the ball six yards from goal with no-one around him. Luckily for the German�s, he put it wide.
The German�s started getting more into the game, and with Moses running midfield, possession was the least of our problems. Not so, our abilities to get shots in on goal. With Heinreich playing in goal for Club, with no disrespect to the man himself, more shots should have attempted. I think I have wrote this comment in every game that we�ve played so far.
As it was, the German possession nearly came to nothing when a Club striker had a shot which produced a reflex save from Stephen Harris. Luckily, with the ball on returning to the initial strikers feet saw the linesman flag for offside.
With ten minutes to go, Will was surprisingly taken off for Gary Pengelly, with Simon Humphreys moving up front. Surprising in that Andy Batchelor who always runs and works hard was tiring himself. Therefore with one striker gone, and one going the German�s had to rely on a goal from the most unlikely of places.
With two minutes to go in the half a corner kick saw Heinreich flap, and at the back post Mark Richardson rose like a bag of cement to power a header home into the Club goal. The celebration was sickening, as a grown man struggled back to his centre half slot with his shirt over his head. Usually players are sanctioned for doing this due to the cheap advertising of t-shirts underneath. Mark should have been sanctioned as I saw it full frontal and couldn�t face my Weetabix on Monday morning.
Luckily it was nearly half-time, so he, and the rest of us, had a full 10 minutes to get over it.
Half-time saw the expected replacement of Andy Batchelor, with Haneef coming on in his place.
The first ten minutes of the second half were pretty tame, with the exception of Moses who was continuing with his good form.
And after those ten minutes, it all went wrong.
A long throw-in from Club, not unlike several they had tried previously in the game, was not covered adequately by the defence. The Club striker cut the ball back for a shot which flat-footed Stephen, but was probably going wide. Stuart Jackets, however, could not afford to take the chance with a striker coming in behind, but he unfortunately stuck an awkward ball into his own net.
And within one minute the German�s blew it again as a Club striker ran into the corner followed by Andy Davison and Alan Pengelly. He could only go one place, which was back, which he did and skipped away from the two defenders where he was brought to the ground inside the box by Nick Park. The referee pointed to the spot, with the resultant penalty being scuffed by the Club striker but still enough to send Stephen the wrong way.
Within the space of two minutes the German�s had thrown their hard-earned lead away.
The German�s tried for an equaliser as the game wore on, but with the one exception when Haneef was sent clean through by a Ricco through ball, yet managed to miss when he should have scored, it was not happening.
With four minutes to go two more strange substitutions occurred, which had the effect of only wasting 30 more seconds, with Oliver coming on for his first game for Andy Davison, and the substitute Gary Pengelly being substituted for Nick Willows.
And in the last minute as the defence struggled to get back, the Club striker was given all the time in the world to loft the ball over the stationery Alan and Oliver to his opposite striker at the back post who completed his hat-trick with his easiest goal of the game.
The second half of this game was terrible, as the German�s threw the game against a pretty miserable Club team.
Hitting Simon with high balls, playing everything through the middle against their 3 tall defenders and some pretty strange substitutions were a few of the things wrong with the German�s in this game. Why we need to use 4 or 5 substitutes every week for a 70 minute game I�m not sure, but I can�t see how it is good for the team.
This, however, is not the only problem as very quiet German team on the day seemed to lack urgency in certain quarters, especially after the loss of the second goal.
Oxford TS next week, and they beat Club Wanderers 4 � 1 two weeks ago. Also, with Club Wanderers pulling away, as did Albion who surprisingly beat KCC, and Boca and Golden both winning the German�s are back in the relegation spot.