Newsletter w/c – 18.10.21

Fixtures for Saturday 23.10.21

Selection

Match Reports

Meads 0 – 3 Old Wokingians

Just over a week ago, I was led to believe that we were playing Woking FC in the cup. My eyes lit up upon Googling them as I saw they play in a stadium with over 6,000 capacity. I thought I made it, but Kev was immediately on hand to 💩 over my dreams and informed me that we were in fact playing Old Wokingians, and that they play at the back arse of their stadium. I was humbled.

We had to find inspiration somehow, and this is where our newly announced captain Matt Fishman led by example as he turned up to our pitch 6 hours early to medidate and access the quality of the grass.

We were in flying spirits prior to kick off, got a great warm up in, and the gaffers lit a fire under our stomach with the team talk before we stepped out. But the heat was so intense that it disintegrated my boots and left me with second degree burns.

After the ref kicked us off, it took us a bit of time, but we gradually found ourselves into the game and started to play some tika taka football. There was no real threat coming from either sides, and looked like the game was destined to be 0-0 draw. But that soon changed when Gordy decided to bring me on, and after receiving a pass from Lewis deep into the opposition’s half, my thunderous first touch put them through on the counter and in no time they slotted it to the back of the net. I blamed the ref for not protecting me but he told me to shut up.

The second half got under way, and our confidence began to drop by the minute. We had spells of good link up play between Toby and Brighty, but our efforts were not rewarded. Toby got absolutely clattered by their centre half, and despite their goal keeper getting on his knees pleading to the ref that he should be fair and give us a penalty, the ref was having none of it and told Toby to stop swimming. It was one of those days.

The momentum kept going their way, and later in the second half, they received a set piece. The ball got played in, and their midfielder powered a glancing header, which smashed fishman in the face leaving a 10 inch dent, but his efforts of clearing the ball of the line was soon to be erased as they smashed the ball into the back of net, giving Conail no chance whatsoever.

Old Wokingians put the nail in the coffin from another set piece where the ball got headed in, their centre half towered over me leaving me for dead and banged it straight over the keeper, where Kimpton made sure that it went in as he continued to head it through our net with mighty force. He proceeded to do the haka right afterwards to intimidate the opposition.

By that point, it was too late. A couple of half chances here and there, with no conversions. The ref had enough and blew up the whistle. We shook hands with the opposition like men, took the L, but left with our heads held up.

We march on next week to face the Hamptonians. We will dust ourselves off, get back to training, and show them what we can do. I have all the faith in the world that once we get our next win and get into full flow, we will be a bloody tough team to beat.

Onto the next one boys! 💪 #COYM

OMFC 4s 6 -5 Old Wokingians 5s

The Falcons are once again playing at home, on pitch 1, with ideal weather conditions and with a full squad!
The team is eager to finally break the curse of being beaten 3-2 in stoppage time like in the past 3 games.
The Falcons were also looking forward to wearing their fresh new kit however as the squad had to meet earlier than expected, the lads had no choice but to wear the old kit for another game at least.

Captain Steve Villard finally and proudly brought his new bike to the clubhouse however did get caught in a typical UK-like weather with 10 minutes of pouring rain during his journey, enough rain to make him look upon arrival at the clubhouse like he either p*ssed himself or perhaps he got too excited / nervous about today’s game..? Who knows…

Early KO 1pm – the Falcons live up to their reputation and show a lack of control of the ball and the space for the first 30 minutes, before slowly getting in better shape for the remainder of the game.
The opposition managed to score 2 goals within the first 20 minutes, and could have easily scored another 4 goals within the following 15 minutes however, thankfully for the Falcons, the opposition’s strikers did miss some pretty unmissable opportunities.

Jose Da Cruz wins a penalty and converts beautifully, giving the 4s some hope!
Jose wins another penalty during the second half and generously hands over the opportunity to Dwayne Quashie who converts the penalty as a top bin!
Such a shame that Dwayne manages to get himself shown a yellow card (as sub!) for talking sh*t to the ref (apparently?).

In summary, a lot of goals and misses from both sides during the whole game!
Loads of drama, tension and frustration at times as both sides keep scoring and winning then losing the advantage…

Guillaume Lefort, following an absolute banger from outside of the box (Goal of the Season so far!), manages to get himself a blue card after disputing the referee’s decisions a few times. Probably following Dwayne’s steps (one goal then a card from the ref? Who knows…).

As the ref shows the blue card to Guillaume, the 4s player apparently never heard of that card, as he looks at his captain Steve Villard looking very confused and asks “what does that mean?”. He then understands that he is out of the pitch for 10 minutes, which puts his teammates at risk of losing the advantage, and perhaps even the game!
Captain Steve Villard is also seen on the sidelines, screaming and throwing his bottle of Lucozade repeatedly, as the stress of the game becomes almost unbearable and the win is so close!!

PETL, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Lucozade, have been made aware of the aggression towards the helpless and defenseless product, and will take necessary actions to prevent this unjustifiable behaviour from happening again near a football pitch. Unacceptable gesture from a team captain.

In the end, Meads win the game 6-5. Yes… 6-5!! Very stressful but extremely rewarding in the end as the Falcons celebrate their first win of the season!! Much deserved and much needed for the squad.
Excellent effort from the squad overall. This win won’t be the last!! Go Falcons!

MoM: Jose Da Cruz (mainly for scoring 2 goals)
WIG: Anthony Sexton (for a failed and rather hilarious indirect free-kick with Jose Da Cruz)

Squad:
1 – GK – Joe Beharie
2 – LB – Joe Yates
3 – CB – James Wallace
4 – CB – Stephan Spiekman
5 – RB – Jack Stansfield
6 – LW – Yacub Sezgin
7 – CM – Guillaume Lefort
8 – CM – Pete Jackson
9 – RW – Anthony Sexton
10 – CF – Matthew Allen
11 – CF – Jose Da Cruz
12 – Sub – Dwayne Quashie
13 – Sub – Dom Stables
14 – Sub – Henri Whelan

Special thanks to Joe Yates from the 2s, Pete Jackson from the 5s and Henri Whelan from the 6s for their valuable help!

Also thanks to Tim Gates for providing his wide range of managing skills and experience throughout the whole game, despite his back injury! Great Meads captain mentality there.

OMFC6 VS Pembroke Old Boys1s

The least said about this match the better really!

Perhaps a degree of complacency had begun to set in, perhaps we were beginning to believe our own hype, maybe it was just an off day?

Either way we seemed rather lackadaisical ( no Andrew that’s not a word I just made up ) on the day and let’s just say certain decisions didn’t go our way!

Final score 1-1

MOM – Sim

DOD – Christian

Sat Vets 4 v 4 Old Tiffinians Vets | Scorers : Pollock, Lucas, OG, Delfines

The Vets picked up their first point this season in the West London Vets League with a thrilling draw in this see-saw match. We also play Tiffs in the London and Surrey Friendly Vets League (LSVFL) so are becoming quite familiar with each other’s style of play and on the evidence of our early season draw in the LSVFL and this game, are very evenly matched. Our WLVFL records coming into this game would not suggest that, however. Tiffs had a 100% win record whereas we had a 100% loss record.  

The game had not even started yet with Derek Barnet consulting the Chiswick District Rule Book on whether we could take an empty pitch just vacated from an early kick-off, as the 8ths had decided to play “jumpers for goalposts” with no assigned pitch and just took the one they liked the most!

With solid drills on the side-lines and some stern words from Foxy and Noel (caught-off guard with his one word of wisdom)… high press and aggression, Meads were fired up to bounce back from the previous outing.

Any thoughts that we might still be suffering from after effects of the previous 8-0 drubbing by the powerful West London Rams (including Jody Morris in centre midfield & several ex pros), were soon dispelled as we started strongly. What was lacking in previous matches was present all over the pitch…. high-press and much more aggression.

We dominated the first half with Tiffs strangely lethargic in the early stages. Tiffs even gave us a helping hand when their keeper somehow managed to allow Noel’s long-range effort to slip through his hands into the net to put us one up.

The lead didn’t last long as Tiffs equalised soon after but two quick goals gave us a two goal advantage our dominance deserved. The first was a great near post header from Bertrand following a superb delivery from the right wing and then Tiffs contrived to score a horror of an own goal. At this stage we were drifting comfortably to half time when Tiffs managed to pull a goal back just before the break after we failed to clear properly.

Tiffs upped their game in the second half and we were definitely second best. Tiffs decided to take the advice of Fox and executed their own high press, with players flooding forward all across the pitch. They dominated most areas, perhaps we tired but we did not handle it well.

They also have some decent strikers, capable of taking chances, and they were starting to cause us a lot of problems. They equalised again from a good free kick and then shortly afterwards took the lead for the first time from a penalty when their speedy striker was brought down in our box.

At this point we were barely breaking into their half and only one result seemed possible. Football they say is a funny old game, and true to form Meads, like a boxer trapped on the ropes for most of a fight, somehow found a second wind and rallied in the last 15 minutes attacking with purpose and creating chances. Just when it seemed too little too late and after a series of missed chances, we finally equalised when, after a shot rebounded from the bar Olivier Deflines thankfully nodded home.

A group of lads that can pull together and ensure we walk off Dukes Meadows with a smile on our faces is why we play for Old Meadonians Vets. Bring on the Cup competition….