Match Report

MK2 vs Oxford City 2, Sunday 28th Jan 2007

It was the 2nd team who stepped up to the plate first for once, knowing that a victory against the only team to defeat them so far this season was absolutely essential to keep alive realistic hopes of winning Division 2. After a very tough selection decision and leaving out several players, the team took to the pitch with Tony, James, Kirsty and Mandy in attack, and Steve, Mark, Monique and Kat in defence. We knew that it would be key to keep an eye on City 2's strongest two players Michiel and Clare, who were not only ex-first-team but ex-national-league.

The game started evenly; one of our divisions took longer to gel with some attempts at defence-splitting passes not coming off, leading to short attacks, but that division also settled down towards the end of the first half, and we managed to secure an 8-6 lead at half-time. At that end, Mark had scored twice, once from the spot, and Steve had scored a long-shot, while at the other end, Tony sunk two penalties and a free-pass and Kirsty had escaped her defender twice near the post to score. The Oxford goals had, unsurprisingly, mostly come from their two star players.

We made a planned change at half-time with Paul coming on for Tony, and Oxford also made two changes. There then followed the most barren spell of the match for goals; Oxford pulled it back to 8-7 but there were then no goals for over 5 minutes, until we then let in an equaliser. After the change of ends, Paul unfortunately missed a penalty but, after some more structured attacks we then reclaimed the lead after all through a long-shot by James. However, we then conceded an equaliser almost straight away so had to switch again. We then built up the attacks again, with Kat doing some great collecting despite being the smallest player on the pitch, and Mark restored our lead with a long-shot almost from the halfway line. City weren't finished, and within a minute the scores were level again! We now started our third attempt to keep the lead, and this time it was a long-shot from Paul that put us ahead. Deja vu, another equaliser, 11-all. We kept constructing the attacks, and this time a ball over the top to Monique worked and she was fouled, earning us a penalty, which Mark converted. We then found out there were only 30 seconds left in the game, and this time there was no time for Oxford to come back, giving us the crucial win and meaning the title could now go down to the wire.

Team and goals:
Tony (3) (sub Paul (1) half-time), James (1), Steve (1), Mark (4), Monique, Kat, Kirsty (2), Mandy


Goal action (WMV files)
Mark earns and scores penalty



MK1 vs Abingdon 1, Sunday 28th Jan 2007

After all that drama, it was now the 1st team's turn, who started knowing that the previous match against Abingdon (a 30-4 win against six players) was a freak situation and that the full-strength team would be much stronger. With Specky having Czeched out for the weekend, Paul and Tony filled the spot in the team, with Nov captain for once after Katie was in the toilet when it was time for the coin-toss! We started quite slowly and actually let in the first goal, although equalised pretty quickly, and then the goals started to flow after about the first 10 minutes, including a running-in shot from Paul, long-shots from Caz, Katie, Simon and Nov and a variety of several different types of goals from Suzanne! (Who also kept her opponent Caroline pretty quiet with some great defence). All this left us either 10-4 or 12-4 up at half-time.

Abingdon had scored right on the half-time whistle leading to a change of roles, which led to a debate of several minutes at the start of the second half to work out which divisions should now be in attack! In the second half, Abingdon scored several long-shots, but we kept matching their goals with scores of our own, including Nov dropping off the back of the post to score, John foxing his defender under the post, a couple of penalties from Simon and two long-shots from Katie. The only controversial moment came quite late on. Abingdon were awarded, and converted, a penalty after John fouled while trying to intercept near the halfway line, leaving his opponent free under the post. About a minute later John tried the same thing again and this time got to the ball cleanly before the attacker, but another penalty was called. Abingdon then obviously thought it should not be a penalty either, as they sportingly threw away the shot.

The game finished 22-16. A much better attacking performance than two weeks ago with Simon top-scoring; we may need to tighten up the defence although we were more or less out of reach by that point anyway. This win means that the only was we can fail to win our second successive league title is if we lose both our final two league games against Basingstoke and Oxford City by more than three goals, and City also win their other three remaining games, making up a VERY large goal difference in the process.

Team and goals:
Nov (4), John (2), Paul (2) (sub Tony half-time), Simon (5), Katie (3), Caz (1), Suzanne (4), Ali (1)


Goal action (WMV files)
Simon penalty