May 8th:
Turtles 4 (3) - Miramar Rangers 2 (0)
By Murray "Snout" Coppersmith
Another business as usual day for the
Turtles on Saturday as the resurgent Masters 2 force dealt to the old foe at a
rather bleak Ben Burn Park. The most notable event of the day was the unusual
sight of excess Turtles turning up to the game. For the second week in a row
Frank turned up unexpectedly. Well, a squad of 16 will no doubt keep the
players fresh. The problem was partially fixed when we decided that Frank
should ref the first half. This turned out to be one of Snouter’s poorer
decisions in his, so far, brief but distinguished stint as skipper.
We dispensed with the toss and played
the way we were facing. The Turts had the benefit of a stiffish breeze in the
first half. Miramar contained a number of the usual old faces and, despite a
modest set of results so far this year we knew that we were in for a tough
match. After a few minutes it became clear that one of the new Miramar signings
was going to cause a few problems. Not so much because he was a useful
footballer (because that wasn’t apparent), but because he spent much of the game
complaining if he was ever challenged for the ball and taking players’ legs out
when he didn’t. Definitely an addition to the WinO stat.
Our first goal came after about 15
minutes when Zil delivered a perfect cross from a corner which curled over the
defence and advancing keeper to be met by Tel about 1 metre out. He smashed it
into the net (Tel’s headers go further than his kicks these days). 1 –0. The
next was another piece of artistry from the Tartan Tadger when lacked on to a
bouncing through ball on the edge of the area and delicately lobbed the ball
over the stranded keeper. 2 – 0 after 25 minutes. Our third came on the half
hour when an angled through ball was collected by the kilted one was had made an
angled run. He was through an slotted the shot past the again hapless keeper.
Miramar appealed vigorously for offside but Frank hadn’t blown the whistle yet
that half and he wasn’t about to start now. When quizzed after the match about
his perspective on the call Gordie was certain that he was onside.
Amongst the Turts goal scoring Miramar
made a few attacks of their own. Despite being a bunch of old buggers, it was
clear that most of them had been pretty useful footballers in their day. This
is particularly evident in the subtlety of their fouls (the right back excepted)
at corners. It’s amazing the space that can be created with a bit of jersey
pulling. Still 3 – 0 at half time and the Turts were feeling reasonably
satisfied.
We knew that the second half would be a
bit more difficult playing into the strong breeze. The first 15 minutes would
be important. Naturally, the Turtles went into siege mentality and were lucky
to escape some near misses. Zil had volunteered to ref to first part of the
second half and had much better control of the game. On the quarter hour a
Miramar through ball caught the back four flatfooted and Peter Becker was
through. He may not be as fast as he used to be but this guy knows how to score
goals. He collected the ball at an acute angle looked up and smashed it into
the roof of the net. 3 – 1 with half an hour to go.
The next 20 minutes were fairly even.
The usual set of event s unfolded in this stage of the game (Tel injured his
buttock and was sprawled on the side line for some time waiting for Grunter to
provide “treatment”, a few ill timed challenges by GT, Big Si smashed a
clearance into the back of Dave Shilson’s head, etc). The tension was broken
when Gordie collected a ball on the by line and worked his way around a few
defenders. One of them had had enough of this and took Gordie’s legs out. Our
first penalty of the year and nearly all the Turts headed for the hills. Just
as well Spratty was on the park. He still needed another 13 goals to get to a
Turtles career tally of 300. He slotted the ball into the corner of the goal.
4 – 1 and the game was over as a contest.
Two
further events of note. The first was a very soft goal to Miramar with 3
minutes left when a free kick into the box was waved on by the defence so that
it fell to the feet of the Miramar striker who side-footed it into the net.
Pretty sloppy work that. The game ended in controversy when Gordie was again
hacked down in the box right on full time. Dodger who was reffing by this time
completely ignored the blatant foul and blew for full time. I think he should
have a further go at reffing next week
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