Ashford Scorers:
Amit Bhamra, Gordon Smith
On the way to MK with the ‘prolific’ Chris Davies (look forward to that pint, Chris) and Steve ‘Collina’ Smith, our ump, I had opined that James Maitland held the key to this game so it was with some foreboding that I arrived to hear that the Wild Man of the team had finally lived upto his nickname and been ill twice on the way due to ’something he ate.’
We duly trotted onto the MK water-based pitch full of thoughts of total hockey to be confronted by a pitch that looked distinctly swamp-like - with mud and scum particularly bad the end we were attacking. Our legendary hard man, James, did not start as ‘his hands were cold’ and Bert Hewes started in the unfamiliar position of right midfield, apart from that we had the normal team of a few old heads and the kids. We never really got going in the first half as we struggled to get used to the pitch and the MK tactics, which involved their skipper, Big John, launching a long-ball offensive throughout (there was a brief lull when he broke his stick!). Very apt given that MK Dons are just down the road, Harry Bassett would have been well proud. Not to say it wasn’t effective as they soon took the lead when an MK forward took advantage of slight indecision and lamped it home impressively giving Tom no chance in goal. We did force short corners thou gh but they weren’t injected properly (sorry!) and I don’t think the surface mulch helped us. Anyway we didn’t trouble the goalie unduly and got to half time 1-0.
2nd half thankfully was a different story as we were attacking the better end of the pitch and, I guess, if we wanted to get anything out of the game, we needed to up the ante which we did. Rosie had had a quiet first half but the second half he was electric - who knows what he’d be like if he could actually see what he was doing! - as he embarked on several curly detours round their midfield and defence (he and Podge have been our best players the whole month). We forced yet more shorts and eventually Amit got his Big Whack going and hit the left post so much that it ricocheted into the opposite sideboard - anyway 1-all. We were dealing better with Big John’s bazooka-powered hits (starting with backing off a bit!) and forcing the pace of the game.
Midway through the half, Ell smacked in a free hit from the left, Ryan made a fantastic run from the right post to the left post and got a touch and though the keeper made a good save, the ball squirted to the old goal-smith-er who made no mistake! 2-1 and off he went determined to show Rosie and Shaggy how to celebrate a goal, jumping and high-fiving anyone in range - very Panesar-esque - kissing his badge and heading for ‘the crowd’ to receive his accolade…only….there was no ‘crowd’!!!!! Apparently he ‘had to work’ - what sort of excuse is that!!!
The last 15 minutes we were made to work hard by MK but we saw the game out relatively comfortably and in the end deserved our win. We came off the pitch spattered with crap but very happy with the performance and the points. It looks like our plan to avoid relegation has worked a bit earlier than expected and we find ourselves at the halfway stage in 2nd place, one point behind South Bucks. Yowsah!
