Middle Park Football Club

After last week’s victorious ‘battle’ the preparations for this week’s must win game were hampered with various injuries depriving manager Cuz of his full squad this week at training.

Nevertheless with the season almost at the half way stage and victories being of the upmost importance, the patched up Parkers managed to pull together a strong squad of 15 ready to face their closest challengers in the table ETA Buffalo. Driessen, Tully & Leitch all passed late fitness tests to take a place on the bench and they were joined by Chris Logie who had flown in specially from Neverland where he had been paying homage to his idol Michael Jackson who sadly passed away at the beginning of the week. Michael has been treating Chris’ various recurrent groin and hamstring injuries since his 8th birthday and rumour has it it was whilst giving Logie a deep rub that he passed away. Chris said it wasn’t all bad news however as Michael had left him most of his wardrobe in his will. Should fit in nicely then with the rest of his gear.

Talking of Jacko….

Q. What's the difference between Alex Ferguson and Michael Jackson?

A. Alex Ferguson will still be playing Giggs in August

So the Team that started in front of goalkeeper Emil in a 4-4-2 formation was Irish Johnny Payton, Del-boy Dibbs, Captain Katieva, I hate a long range shot Cooksey, Matty wind me up and watch me go Lewis, Wolfman Starrs, Bobby Franklin who kindly answered our SOS, Cool Rem Ten Harkel, Andy self claimed Iceman Lumsden and Will I’ve got pace to burn Bleakley.

After a good opening 15 minutes the Parkers were struggling to play their usual free flowing game and were seldom creating any clear cut chances. The Parkers attempts to play football weren’t helped by Adolf the Midget Referee who’s severe case of small man syndrome meant that the game was never going to flow. A perfectly good goal scored by Will an example of this, being disallowed for an alleged foul on the goalkeeper. The half was scrappy although the small opposition playmaker was showing good feet and skill to create opportunities and had it not been for the heroics of Emil on 3 separate occasions, the Parkers would have gone in down at half time. Emil was looking composed between the sticks and it was encouraging for the rest of the team.

HALF TIME MIDDLE PARK 0

ETA BUFFALO 0

The second half started with orders from Cuz to ‘step up a gear’ and those orders must have been ringing in the ears of Will who chased a long ball from Starrs that looked like a lost cause only for him to beat the advances of the goalkeeper and from a tight angle hit a shot that clipped the bar before spinning across the face of the goal and just missing the advancing Ice Man Lumsden. This lack of luck seemed to be ever more costly only 2 minutes later when slack pay from Middle Park invited unnecessary pressure from the opposition who punished emphatically when one of their forward players slipped between 2 Park Defenders to head the ball home. One Nil down. These are the games where teams that become champions show true grit and determination to grind out results and this goal acted as a catalyst as to a man all the Parkers upped their work rate determined to get back on level terms.

3 substitutions followed in quick succession…….Logie for Lumsden, Tully for Franklin and Leitch for Rem. The referee continued to infuriate both sides with baffling decisions and this culminated in a heated exchange with Manager Cuz where he was sent packing for complaining about Adolf’s 100th ridiculous decision of the day. No sooner had Cuz sorted out his deckchair and where to get best view for the remainder of the game, than the Parkers were back on level terms and what a goal it was……Tully went in for a 50/50 inside the centre circle and smashed the ball somewhere into orbit with his left foot, as it came down in the oppositions penalty area the goalkeeper came out to receive, only to be put off by the advancing Logie and the ball rocketed into the back of the net. As Logie moon walked away in celebration the Fox Sports cameras confirmed there was no touch, therefore goal Tully. For a man who ‘couldn’t score in a bag of fannys' in his last match he was happy to see the ball hit the back of the net. It wasn’t a half way classic a la Beckham or Pele but hey, they all count and the Parkers were back in it.

With Berry on for Will the Parkers could smell a victory and showed lots of guts and determination to fight for each other and win their own personal battles…….some nice play between Cooksey, Tully and Starrs resulted in an opening for Matty Lewis who showed great composure to score from a tight angle. 2-1 Middle Park.

As you would expect there was a late rally from the opposition however Middle Park were solid in their defending and held on comfortably. The victory could have been even sweeter had Johnny Payton not had a nosebleed when presented with the goal at his mercy following excellent lead up play from Logie, instead of side footing into the empty net from the edge of the box he reminisced back to his Gaelic Football days and smashed it well over the bar.

FINAL SCORE MIDDLE PARK 2

ETA BUFFALO 1

It may not have been a classic but all in all a well fought victory for Middle Park and one the boys can be proud of. Special mention to Emil who’s first half heroics kept the boys in the game.

With the return of Dave Hearn and big Karl set to boost the squad, the Parkers can look forward to next week’s top of the table clash with confidence. Glory, glory to the Parkers!