Colts - v Byfleet Scorpions- 22 Feb 03

Scorpions Draw Sting

Colts 2 - Scorpions 2

It was a rather rusty set of Colts, denuded of their ace strikers Stephen and Gregg, deadly defender Donald and top coach Dean, that jogged onto the field at Byfleet today. The opening minutes of the game were scrappy and it took midfield colossus, Alex and super skip, Greg to get the boys moving.

After 6 minutes, Alex had his first run down the left, easily penetrating the Scorpion defence and he was unlucky only to win a corner. Toby, Ben and Sam threatened, but there was a lack of cutting edge - probably because of the lack of match sharpness.

Scorpions attacked on 15 minutes and it took the combo of Jack and Nathan to stop them getting through. On 16 minutes though, disaster struck - after a bit of a scramble in the box, they shot into the top right hand corner of the net leaving Grant with no chance - 1-0 and the Colts were reeling.

On 21 minutes, Scorpions attacked again, and this time it was Scott and Nathan who saved the day with last ditch challenges. Colts were starting to fight back though, with Ben, Sam and Alex getting away with Josh and the superb Greg working hard on provision of the ball.

On 24 minutes, Grant grabbed a corner at full stretch and took a quick goal kick which found Greg at full tilt and in space - the inevitable sprint into the box followed by a deft flick past the keeper put away the equalizer - normal service restored? - not really - it still looked like an uphill struggle. The half finished with an indirect kick 1 metre from the goal line for a Scorpions pass back which the Colts could not convert.

The half time team talk was given by Dean, fresh in from Warsaw, and this seemed to make a difference. The boys came out for the second half with a spring in their step. Sam went through after only a minute and got muscled off the ball just short of the line. After 4 minutes it was Ben's turn to get shoved off the ball as it looked like he must score - the pressure was building and the crowd smelt blood.

Greg jigged and jiggled down the left side of midfield on 6 minutes and passed to a rampant Alex galloping down the centre. Alex could have thumped it, but from 20 metres out, he executed a delightful Beckhamesque chip into the back of the net - definitely a top 10 goal of the season.

After 15 minutes, Sam was caught off side as an attack developed from a through ball by Toby. Byfleet attacked from the free kick, forcing a save from Grant and a line clearance from Jack. Another save and clearance, this time from Scott, after 18 minutes, signalled continuing pressure from the Scorps. After 22 minutes, Byfleet broke through and put away the equalizer.

2-2 and this scrappy match came to an end with heroic efforts from the Colts to win the match - but this was just not their day - but next week there'll be Stephen and Donald and Gregg…….and two halves of Dean - how can we lose?

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Colts - v Caterham - 18 Jan 03

Puma Mauling

Colts 2 - Pumas 4

This was just a bad day at the office for the ring rusty Colts as they crashed out of the cup to Caterham. Colts started and finished like lions, but the bulk of the game was scrappy and wasteful leaving a much improved pride of Pumas to sweep the board.

The boys started brightly enough with Donald, Toby and Scott doing lots of useful work at the back, feeding a perky Alex and Gregg to set up a number of attacks. After 7 minutes Alex unleashed a left foot pile driver that was just saved by an excellent Puma keeper. One minute later Greg had a good effort saved, and it looked like the big game hunting had really started.

Steven had a trade-mark left foot curling free kick saved after 10 minutes, before Pumas broke away down the left, forcing Scott into a goal-saving tackle. Scott really is a great force at the back, ably assisted by an ever more speedy Jack (who is even popping up in attacking movements these days).

We were treated to Sam and Toby on the pitch for the whole game this week and they were both looking really good - Sam spreading the ball about and appearing suddenly in front of goal and Toby tackling and passing like a demon.

After 18 minutes Ben (in Beckhamesque red boots) fed Steven who had his shot saved. Finally afer 24 minutes, the ever skilful Greg crossed from the left to let super-poacher Alfie pump the ball into the back of the net - 1-0 to the Colts. 26 minutes saw Ben have a shot saved, but then disaster struck on 28 minutes, when Pumas broke down the right and cleverly lobbed a charging Grant to equalize.

The second half started excitingly with a great chance falling to Sam, but he was muscled off the ball. Things started to go downhill as the Pumas charged up the park to knock another goal past Grant and the Colts were in real trouble. Things got worse on 8 minutes when a Puma attack was broken down by Grant's feet outside his area - he fell injured however, and the Pumas were able to regain the ball and trickle it into the net to make the score 1-3.

Grant was carried off and a brave Toby got in between the sticks. On 16 minutes the Pumas made it 4-1 and all seemed lost. But then the Yellow Tidal Wave kicked in - the crowd held its breath as Gregg, Greg, Ben, Steven and Sam charged down the field laying on wave after wave of attacks - finally after 18 minutes the pressure paid off and they were awarded a penalty. Poor Steven scraped the top of the cross bar and it began to look as though it just was not going to be a Colts' day.

Grant came back on after 20 minutes and threw the whole assembled company into confusion as he trotted straight to the wrong end of the pitch to try and convert a corner kick - Toby was out of goal and Sam was still on - if someone had thrown a rugby ball onto the pitch, there would not have been any more confusion!!

On 30 minutes justice was done, when Steven executed an outrageous dummy to feed Alex who passed to Greg who in turn gave it to Gregg who made no mistake in burying his first goal of 2003. 2-4 at the whistle and a rather disappointing game was over - plenty of optimism for next Saturday though.

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