Pre–Season Friendly Against WBSS

Reminiscent of Saturday mornings at school just before a rugby match, the Lakesiders' congregated at Manager John's flat at 11.30am.
John Evans was constantly on his phone trying to get everyone together.
Just like rugby at school there was that big bag to carry and a bucket of clean water just in case of emergencies.

We trundled along towards Westwood, avoiding every temptation to walk into Varsity pub. Surely a hero's welcome would await us after the match.

Training commenced on the small patch of grass outside the sports centre.
Where we tried to cram (like the day before exams): rediscovering football skills and the names of the other members. We had 11, with other team members yet to come. Things might be promising.

Our opponents: the Warwick Business School Society, last years winners. They were sporting last years Budweiser strip (new Vodafone ones to come) and they looked a teensy more professional than our mix and match strip. But hey! we're here to have fun.

"You can kick off – Good luck," said the Captain of WBSS.

We had no captain. But this position would naturally be taken up by Steve. Who constantly and tirelessly motivated the team… with every passing goal…..

We had excellent possesion for the first 3 minutes, but this soon resulted in a heavy punishing because of the lack of a real goalie, despite the best of John's efforts.

WBSS pushed us back often, making the team seeming to be made up of 2 strikers, 8 defenders and 1 goalie. Marcello,defended very well, being a good buffer between WBSS and the goal keeper.

Play improved as we slowly learnt each others names, but we lacked a bit of coherence on our very first outing.
John's dyanamic tactical switches improved the game. Switching Bellamy (me) with Din. Din and Mattias made quite a few opportunist breaks up the field – but the opposition defence was too strong.

Will Jones managed to finish his brekfast before the first half ended, and came in to play 30 mins into the game. We instantly felt the effects of his energy and quick pace, despite the fact he looked like a 1st XI hockey player.

At Half time 7–0 tactics were switched to solely defensive. With Steve, then Will in goal, many precious saves were made. 3 more breaks from the strikers were hampered by the opposition goalie.

I was getting seriously cold on the bench, as a few sprinkles of rain came down. But the weather would hold up. I was substituted only to go on and strain my cold muscles (which I'm still living with 4 days on).
The Ass. Manager, fan and supporter [both singular], left the sidelines to seek interest at Tesco's.

We showed more and more promise as the game progressed. By full time we conceded only 6 goals in the second half. Will made a couple of hard (but fair) tackles. Captain Steve made many great saves.
John and Steve kept the motivation up, and morale was high within the team.

The opposition goalie was so idle all day long, he must have caught hyperthermia.

We had a lot of fun and decided that we were probably not welcome in Varsity after the match. We know most of each others names and got along really well. Thanks to everyone on the team (and supporters!) and Warwick Business S. Society for a good caning.

13–0 Things can only get better now.

Nathaniel Ho : 18 Oct 2004 23:52 |  Tags: Lakers Lakeside Lakers |  Comments (0) |  Trackbacks (2) |  Report a problem