Michael Monksfield All-Star Charity Cup

Friday night at Ram Meadow could only mean one thing, The Michael Monksfield All-Star Cup Final. With a turnout as low as ever witnessed at this historic national stadium, professional athlete Michael Monksfield was left to pick the left-overs from a season which had taken its toll on both the Black Boy and their Veteran counterparts. Graham Plummer was chosen to captain the opposition Vikings while the lucky players who weren’t picked for the match could make full use of the bar facilities.

Kick-off saw the All-Stars take the initiative as on-loan Lee Pallot combined well with Paul Revens on the corner of the area before the latter sidefooted into the corner with a trademark finish. The crowd and players went ballistic. One soon became two after full-back Charlie Leighton was released down the left and his pull-back was finished by Carter. The Vikings hit back strongly as the half progressed and pulled one back after Driver spilt a cross to self-proclaimed superstar Paul Nozedar to steer home before the interval.

With the game delicately poised and a raft of substitutions being made, The Vikings came out of the traps quickly in the second half with Phil nearly breaking the deadlock before Nozedar added his second of the night after rounding the keeper. The All-Stars went close through Pallot and then not-so-close with a long range effort from Shanks which only worried the corner flag. The sell-out crowd was also treated to Dave Neary’s specialist move, the “human-nutmeg” before Leighton was forced to withdraw with a cut to his eye after a robust aerial challenge.

The Vikings were soon rampant again as Chris Rogers caused all sorts of problems up front, scoring while sat on the ground as the keeper came out of his goal. Minutes later, Rogers scored an identical effort from a seated position leading to chants in the crowd of “He only scores on his arse”.

After another flurry of substitutions, The All-Stars were chasing the game. A bandaged Leighton pulled one back with a looping header that no-one dared challenge him for after his injury before rifling in an impressive second from range after a mazy run from Pallot.

With the scores tied at 4-4, the lottery of penalties commenced. Gareth Adams was the red-faced party as he missed the decisive spot-kick after an ill-advised attempt to lob the 6’4” keeper who was stood on his goal-line. That left Graham to lift the trophy, Leighton to head to A+E, Shanks to superbly raise £2000 for his MacMillan charity and everyone else to head to the bar.

BBFC vs Beck Row

After a promising run-in, Black Boy slipped to two defeats in the last two games with a comprehensive final day loss to Beck Row Res. Much improved since we drew with them at the beginning of the season, Beck Row started brightly and deservedly took away the three points after a clinical display against a disappointing BBFC.

The visitors started brightly with a youthful line-up while Black Boy were short of a few key players and again looked tired. Two goals before half time put Beck Row 2-0 up at the break with the BBFC looking uncharacteristically shaky and struggling to deal with the pace and power of the opposition frontman. This led to Graham Plummer shuffling his line-up with an early substitution in order to try and stem the Beck Row attacks.

The start to the second half was much brighter from The Mighty Boy with Carter and Carl Wager going close as we got more support to our front players. This left the game very stretched with both sides looking to hit each other on the break. The Boy pulled a goal back when Carter’s cross just evaded Graham at the back post and Charlie was able to centre for Chris Wager to swivel and fire home. This was the boost we needed but also an incentive for Beck Row as both sides pushed bodies forward. It was Beck Row who finished the game off though as they clinically took three chances in quick succession after defensive errors as the Boy went for broke.

While the magnitude of two defeats at the end of the season could be very costly for us, there is no doubt that if we evaluate the season on the whole, it has been the best ever in the club’s history. It might, just might, still lead to promotion.

BBFC vs Elephant & Castle

After last week’s nail-biting victory over Wickhambrook, we knew that we had promotion and the league title in our own hands. Perhaps what we wrongly thought was that we had already won it. Well we were brought down with a bump after our disappointing mid-week game against a strong Elephant & Castle side and were second best for much of the game. Their movement and short passing game was tough to deal with from the outset while our legs were tired from the efforts of Saturday. While The Trunk players were assured on the ball, we found ourselves unable to get a foot on the ball and instead were all guilty of smashing balls hopelessly down field to clear our lines.

With our lack of possession, E&C slowly turned the screw and it took some good defensive blocks from the back four and Driver to keep us level. After a rare break forward, Charlie managed to beat the opposition keeper to a flick-on only to see the ball rebound off the upright. The Mighty Boy were eventually 1-0 behind though as a E&C forward broke the offside trap and finished in the corner. Phil was working tirelessly up front for us and his strength and persistence paid off when he was barged over on the right touchline. Phil took the freekick himself into a dangerous area, allowing Charlie to poke home the equaliser just ahead of Graham.

Half-time was welcome respite and after drawing level, we had hoped to go on and dominate the second half. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be though as Elephant & Castle continued to have more possession and territory, making the Black Boy players work hard to close them down. They eventually got ahead again while we tired and at this point the game looked beyond us as we were leaving ourselves vulnerable to the counter as we looked to push for an equaliser. Shanks was introduced from the bench and both he and Chris went close with speculative long range drives.

A third for E&C looked inevitable though and it promptly arrived to kill off the game and any hope of a comeback. We all felt dejected at full time but have to acknowledge that E&C are an unpredictable team and today we were deservedly beaten by them. All we can do now is put points on the board from our last game wait on other results.

Foghorn Leighthorn
Giant Looney Tunes Chicken