5.15pm kick off
Coached by the brilliant tactician, Richard Nichols, Ted’s All Stars pulled off a stunning victory against Eastern FC last night.
Nichols, unruffled by the absence of his combustible assistant coach, was positively Wenger like as he pulled together a motley crew of journeymen, individual talent and solid team players and moulded them in to a well oiled football machine. Chests swelled with pride as the English and US flags were swapped on the halfway line and top ranked referee, Klaus Whitney, got the game underway
The All Stars barely survived the first half as Eastern sent wave after wave of attacks down both flanks, orchestrated by a small blonde lad with the skills of Ronaldo and the speed of a tortoise. Young Lee Owen was immense in goal and the watching scouts were salivating over his signature for the 2009-10 season. The central defensive pairing of Tim and Cesco and then Tim and Alex surprised me and themselves with some very solid defending in the air and on the ground, never missing a tackle and sending every loose ball flying, Tony Adams like, in to the North Stand. Dave O, Nolan and Adam were snapping at the heels of every Eastern attacker, terrier like, with Dave O snarling like a young Stuart Pearce as he got to grips with Eastern’s Albanian playmaker, Elson.
In midfield, it was all defensive work with the odd break to relieve the pressure. As expected, Austin T was here, there and everywhere, ably partnered by Ben who was Glen Hoddle like in his calm demeanour and simple passes. On the wings, Mitch and Daniel L were putting in a very impressive work rate, working up a sweat as they tracked back and forth the full sized turf pitch.
Attack was limited but there was no shortage of hard work and running from Ricky and Jack while Daniel O let his feet do the talking, a welcome change from before the game!
Everything changed in the 2nd half as the famous Nichols half time talk galvanized the All Stars, the small blonde lad switched teams and Eastern’s coach made the #1 error in youth football – he let the boys decide where they wanted to play. Having survived a couple of Eastern goal attempts, Cesco and then Jack found themselves in acres of space but both shot wide as their left feet let them down. Spotting Eastern’s formation change to 1-9, Nichols pushed Mitch up on their one defender and with Austin, Ted and Jack zipping around like Fireflies the attacks came thick and fast. Finally the Eastern resistance broke and
With Tim, Ben and Adam giving Eastern very little time on the ball in midfield, the All Stars found their fluency and the small blonde lad was starting to show his range of passing across the park. The defense were able to relax a bit more with Alex and Nolan shutting down the Eastern attack time after time, leaving Lee twiddling his thumbs in goal for long periods.
With that much space, more goals were bound to follow and so they did with Ricky taking two chances with pinpoint accuracy after nice work from the small blonde lad on the wing. Towards the end Eastern had a goal controversially ruled out for offside – a thumping header from Brian the goalkeeper.
Time was running out and with Eastern heads dropping, there was time for one more goal as All Stars scythed through the defence and Jack slotted home #4.
Result: Ted’s All Stars 4 Eastern FC 0
