4-4 vs Brent FC

A nice warm day was ideal for this end of season friendly game against our guests from north London. A strong squad shows the commitment we now have within the club, and the competition for places has now intensified with both Hugo and Simon making a welcome return to the squad after both being out for almost a year. Great to see both back wearing the green and white hoops; two very good players who will only improve the team and offer us something different.

And so it seemed…. Richard sent out a strong starting 11 with Magog in goal, Terry, El Doctor, James and Hugo across the back, Cedric continuing in his new right wing role, Walther coming in instead of Micky to join La Maquina in central midfield with Brendan starting out wide left and Simon and El Guapito up front together… if not the most talented front two in the league, certainly the best looking!!! On the bench were Mike, Richard, Dan & Caj, with Nick, Humberto, Samu, Mickey & Juan all away and a freak injury to Fritz in the warm up not good news either. Hopefully he’ll be back from his broken toe nail in no time at all….

The game kicked off with the WAGs up in the stands enjoying the glorious sunshine, and we soon settled in to the passing game that we’ve begun to develop in recent weeks. The ball was soon moving from side to side as we looked to create space to allow some of our more talented players to play in. We were looking dangerous down both wings and through the middle and it looked like it could be a nice day to be a Michael Collins player. And so it started to seem…. Good play between Cedric and Terry down the right led to the first goal with Cedric putting an excellent shot from the edge of the box into the bottom corner of the net for a great opener. His delight quickly turned to disappointment as he ran to celebrate in front of Thays, who was too busy discussing the latest in fashion trends with the other girls and hadn’t even noticed that he’d scored !!!! Shame really because it was a lovely goal, and the young Frenchman deserved a better response than that....

However, his goal was soon eclipsed by an absolute beauty crafted from the feet of La Maquina!!! A controversial free kick awarded out on the right meant that the big men made their traditional journey from the back to await the cross, but they needn’t have bothered as up stepped Victor to lash a stunning shot from 30 metres in off the underside of crossbar to make it 2-0. A great shot, it has to be said, but against a keeper taller than 1 metre 50 it probably wouldn’t have been a goal… But credit where it’s due, and there can hardly be a more deserving goal scorer after all his commitment and unselfish running for the Michael Collins cause throughout the season.

The opposition were beginning to become more and more frustrated with what they felt were some soft refereeing decisions going against them, and their humour couldn’t have been helped as a third goal was added from the penalty spot after Victor Guapo had tumbled Cristiano Ronaldo-like as the opposition centre half breathed too heavily on him in the penalty area when chasing a long through ball. A shameless dive, and more worthy of an Oscar than a penalty, but the referee bought it and it was soon 3-0.

Multiple changes to the team allowed our visitors to slowly establish themselves in the game and their hard work was soon rewarded; Magog became the first keeper in history to ask for a wall for a freekick on the halfway line, and the confusion this caused dragged Brendan out of position and allowed the opposition to play an intelligent set piece through the static Collins defence to score a very nice goal.

However, the 3 goal gap was soon re-established as Simon slotted home with his left foot following a melee in the opposition penalty area, to notch a goal that his good play to that point had surely merited. An excellent return from the Scotsman, who really does bring something “different” to the team when he plays…. “Different” not necessarily being “good” however!!!

Halftime soon came and some welcome refreshment for the boys…

We started the second half as we’d ended the first, creating some good opportunities but not able to convert any of them and slowly but surely we began to allow the visitors back into the game. Some woeful defending by Terry, taking 20 touches to try to control a headed knock down from James gifted the ball to the opposition left winger who calmly chipped Magog from 25 metres for an excellent finish, and we didn’t seem to learn our lesson as we soon gifted another goal to the visiting 11.

Only 4-3 up and suddenly starting to look not as easy as we’d thought it was going to be. And we were soon punished for our lack of ruthlessness when a good ball over the top was collected by the opposition centre forward who stepped inside a clearly hungover James to slot past Magog from the edge of the area. Hardly what we deserved for the way we’d played for most of the game, but a harsh lesson to all that we must finish teams off while we can, and to concentrate more at the back.

One last chance from Walther that drew a fantastic save from the opposition keeper, denied what would have been a deserved victory, but it wasn’t to be and the game came to an end with a very Liverpool-esque final scoreline of 4-4.

After a disappointing couple of results against some of the other title chasing teams we’ve started to come back to a bit of form lately, although unfortunately too late to be able to challenge for the title this season. However, looking at the squad of players that we now have things can certainly be interesting for the Verdiblancos in 2009-10, although it looks like its going to be difficult for “El Mister” to keep around 20 players happy, and some people may not get too many opportunities next season.

However, before we talk too much about next season there’s still the small matter of our final league game against Torpedo and the end of season sevens torneo at Muntañesa to think about….

Vamos Collins!!!!