On the way to the game we had a vote as to who were the STRIKERS' 4 most valuable players this year and, in order, the consensus view was FF, Big Al, Casey Wehrman and Gwynnie. We thought that they were all out due to suspension in the case of FF and injury in the case of the others. Andy Brayshaw was also wounded and so there wasn't a lot of optimism and I must confess to saying we'd be lucky to get a point. Well.....
First good news was to see Gwynne on the field and the game started with the STRIKERS looking fairly tentative, but not quite so brittle at the back as I had expected, in fact Battiston, Hews, Bell, Gwynne and Williams seemed to be holding the much vaunted Marconi attack with reasonable comfort until the seventeenth minute when poor covering at the far post allowed Marconi to move the ball crossfield to score. I thought that just might break the STRIKERS' resolve but, to their credit they dug in and a combination of very ordinary finishing and calm defence maintained a fairly even contest to half-time. Bolton made several good saves and his distribution this week was improved considerably. Towards half-time Brown wrestled with Longo and as they fell the ball was loose just outside the box for Meredith smite it home just after the whistle for Brown having won the wrestle.
The second half saw the STRIKERS begin to match Marconi all over the park and Knipe (MOTM for me, with surprising flair, awareness of possibilities and finding good positions - could have had 4 himself but for just inadequate finishing) and it was no great surprise when the Cranney kiddy equalized by making a long run down the left, beating one defender rather clumsily and luckily and a second with a little push and run to beat the keeper where he should not, at the near post. (BTW, anyone else see a striking resemblance between this goal and Ryan Giggs' v Porto? [God I hate scum references - Ed]).
At this point the STRIKERS grabbed the mid-field and pinned Marconi back for long periods with good possessional play and accurate passing. Both teams had to rely on their keepers several times to maintain the deadlock until a Cranney pushed up the right to be taken out by Bingley (BTW, JYCSTJW [Johnny Warren- Ed] is just for once in his life talking bollocks to suggest that he of the flowing mane and white ballet slippers should EVER play for our World Cup first eleven judging from what I saw last night). From the free-kick white slipper deflected a header against a Marconi arm which was hastily withdrawn - always a sure admission of guilt - and Gerry Connally (sp?) (doing a fair impersonation of a referee rather the Queen or Joe B-P) was correct, and not slow, as suggested by Manfred S on OTB, to point to the dreaded spot.
The boys in blue hardly protested and simply dropped their head before Battiston, who used to be a striker, watched the keeper go early to the left and stroked the ball slightly to the right. Cue pandemonium from the 4700 crowd and then the currently usual 6 minutes of injury time before the 3 unexpected points were in the bag
IMHO Marconi were not impressive and a full strength STRIKERS' squad, on last night's effort, account for them comfortably. The STRIKERS did reduce the long lob into the box, but were still prone to overdo that futile means of attack. It was when they kept it on the carpet they looked both safe and dangerous. Pleasing features of the night were both the absence of the Italian national flag and the fact that a large group of Italian supporters near us were utterly pro-STRIKERS. There were a few small blue flags bearing what looked like a donkey to me, but the significance was lost on me ;-).
All in all a game that lifted my spirits and restored my confidence that the STRIKERS are not a spent force this year yet.