Vs Terrassa 5-2 Loss

Guest match report by Mike Roberts

With Richard down south with the sound of the Beach Boys in his ears, in the absence of their mentor, the Collins were left to fend for themselves in his absence. Things didn’t start well, as the squad assembled outside the pub wondering where the kit was and waiting for it to appear out of thin air, while out in Terrassa the day’s opposition had already started their warm-up routine. With matters finally sorted out, it was off to Terrassa, with Mike Roberts muttering away to himself about a decade and a half of calamitous journeys to Terrassa in which we have managed to maintain a proud tradition of clutching defeat from the jaws of victory. Today was to be no exception.

The first half was a joy to behold. Gerard Vilanova of Terrassa’s version of events sent to the official BIFL website speaks of “the Michael Collins scoring two first half goals on the counter attack.” Just what game he was watching is hard to imagine, for by definition, for a team to start a counter attack, the opposition first has to form an attack to counter, and those were conspicuous only by their absence in Terrassa’s first half. We were all over them. Absolutely running rings around them. Solid in defence, with more pace and ideas in midfield, and for the first time in three games, actually making that possession count. Either Victor López scored first and Fritz after, or Fritz first and Victor after, I can’t remember, but whatever, we were 2-0 up within about twenty minutes, and Terrassa had barely managed to string together more than a couple of passes. They did manage to create a few problems as the half wore on, but by half time it was so far so good, and oozing with confidence, the only thoughts the Collins had were of grabbing an early second half goal to settle things, and then to turn their attention to their plans for the evening.

But there were two major factors that had not been taken into account. The first was the sun. It was another matter entirely playing with squinting eyes as the great ball in the sky glared down in your face, and winning high balls was suddenly not the simple affair it had been before the break. The second concern was the Terrassa bench. They had five subs, and good ones at that, while we only had Caj and an injured Simon.

Still, we soldiered on, knowing that on the strength of our first half supremacy, not even those minor concerns were likely to deny us the three points. But then disaster. Just what the Doctor was doing, we cannot be sure, but a lunging tackle to bring down a rival striker who really wasn’t doing any harm whatsoever resulted in the ref having little option but to point at the (non-existent) penalty spot. Following a minute or two deciding where said penalty spot should have really been, Terrassa were off the mark. 2-1.

The goal knocked some of the confidence out of the Collins boys, and at the same time served to buoy up the home side, and the course of the entire game had changed. A high but reasonably saveable strike from outside the area was flunked by goalkeeper Mike Roberts, who muttered some lame excuse about the sun being in his eyes, and it was 2-2, and although he managed to redeem himself with two or three cracking saves (if I can say so myself), the last half hour or so saw the ball almost constantly in the Collins’ half of the pitch, and with the midfield having collapsed, and the defence making all the simple errors they had so brilliantly failed to make in the second half, more goals threatened to come if the Collins didn’t get their act together quickly.

They didn’t. Terrassa’s third saw the ball crossed in and frustratingly managing to bounce of the toe of some guy who was laid out on the floor to go in, the fourth was a one-on-one as one of their players managed to leave our defenders standing. Terrassa were reinvigorated by all those substitutions, the Collins were demoralised and, in laymen’s terms knackered, and by the time it was 5-2 the green and whites were beyond caring any more and yelling at the referee to blow for time and put them out of further misery.

All in all a thoroughly disappointing defeat, for at half time it had all looked so very different, but if any lesson was learned today, it was the importance of having a strong set of players, five if possible, to bring on in the second half – it’s in the last half hour when games are won or lost, as we found out the hard way in Terrassa.

The man of the match award was shared by Walther and Victor ‘guapo’ as Terry has decided to name him (as opposed to Victor ‘máquina’ in midfield). Next week, it’s the Cup first round, a difficult task in high-flying Black Horse, but wouldn’t it be just fecking marvellous to put out a side that is surely already making plans for their second round game against Storesnay. This season, when the Collins click, we’re a match for anyone. Let’s hope there’s plenty of clicking in front of the Wags on Saturday then.