Tufnell Park Rangers vs Gower Allstars - league Oct 28th - Match Repor
This was a must win game for the Allstars to maintain the winning streak and sustain the lead at the top of the premier division.
But the treacherous wind and rain hampered any real quality football from being played by either side.
Nevertheless, desire and commitment were most definitely on the menu.
Tufnell Park Rangers (TPR) were screaming, shouting and chasing every ball from the first whistle – although it has to be said, none of it really bothered the Allstars.
Credit to Gowers, they did not get sucked into all the shenanigans. They stuck to the task of trying to break down TPR, the footballing way.
Ricky made his mark early doors with some excellently midfield battling, and notably Durrant & Sav Capone contributed well on the flanks, all of which presented Kelly with a couple of decent opportunities which on another day, he would have finished off to give the Gowers a comfortable lead.
However it was Jamie Paley, playing in the hole, who came more and more into the game, and broke the deadlock on 30 mins, with a shot, low and hard, that should really have been saved by the keeper, but the wet skiddy conditions caused him to fumble and give the Gowers the lead.
Some really solid defending by Glyn and his back four, prevented TPR from finding any real rhythm or momentum – and the half finished with a solid 1-0 lead.
Second half started brighter by Gowers, with some fine moves involving Kelly and Durrant down the right, and on 55 mins, Kelly slickly beat his marker to skip away down the right and finish powerfully, beneath the keeper.
That was where the normality of the game ended.
Mike and the team celebrated for about 45-60 seconds, then Mike came back to the half-way line, and just as TPR were about to restart, Mike ran into the centre circle thinking they had touched the ball. They hadn’t, and the pedantic referee booked Mike for time-wasting, getting back to the half-way line and running into the centre circle.
If you thought that was harsh, you wait.
Mike was astonished and said back to the Ref “You’ve got to be jokin’, aint you Ref?”
And then, quite incredibly, the mentally unstable Referee, who had already booked 4 players for dissent, then booked Mike for dissent, and sent him off for two yellows in 1 minute.
Allstars down to 10-men, 2-0 up with 35 mins to play.
An instant substitution – J.Paley for Blandy – brought fresh skilful legs on upfront, which paid dividends, as the minutes ticked by.
4-4-1 proved very difficult for TPR to break down, with some huge tackles from all across the pitch – no more so, than left back Stef on his debut for Gower. He read the game and his tackles perfectly throughout that all important second half.
Mitchell and Ricky, kept winning the midfield battle, which protected the back four – apart from on one occasion when a defensive mix up allowed a deflected clearance to go straight to the striker who missed an open goal from 15 yards.
Meanwhile Blandy continued to show his skill upfront by beating numerous men, holding the ball up, and putting fine throughballs in, for the onrushing midfielders. Great to have him back after 3 months.
The momentum continuted the way of Gowers, until the 80th minute, when Glyn went up for an over-stretched header, and landed full weight on his right ankle – tearing the ligaments in the process. The exact same injury he incurred in the cup final 18 months ago. He knew instantly.what he had done, and couldn’t continue.
With no more subs, the Gowers were now down to 9 players with 10 mins to play.
Ricky dropped into centre back leaving a 4-3-1 formation.
3 minutes goes by. Capone wins a crunching tackle, which his opposition number disliked immensely, and in revenge then hacks at Capone wildly, which Capone then loses his rag at. A push and a shove, then Capone unnecessarily throws the ball in the face of his opposite number, and in doing so, gets himself sent off.
Gowers now have 7 minutes to play, with 8 men on the pitch. One more player off, and the game would have been abandoned.
4-2-1 – that famous international formation was now employed the Gowers, for the remaining minutes of onslaught.
And credit to TPR, they were presented with a gift by Paley in goal, who lost control of a standard save, leaving an open goal for their striker to slot home.
2-1 Gower – 3 farcical minutes to play.
Luckily a couple of Stef / Ricky tackles later, the game was over, and Gower took home a heroic 3 points.
What a game. What a joke of a referee. What an important win. Grit, fight and determination. Big 3 points.
MOTM = Stef – big debut performance at left back, saved the team on a few vital occasions.
That’s 6 games played, 1 loss, 5 wins – in a row. That is championship winning form. One more loss, and it’s a whole different story. Don’t let it happen.
