Hatty Potter and the Chamber of Salads
Chiswick Celtic Reserves 2 GPR 6
These blog posts are usually built on misery, depression, and disappointment. Today’s performance was a timely reminder that, amidst the primordial ooze, there can be much joy to be found in Sunday League. We were fantastic today, making use of a good pitch surface to cut through our friendly rivals Chiswick Celtic and get our first points of the season on the board. This signals a marked improvement on last year, where it took us 9 months to win our first game, giving hope for the fixtures to follow.
The match began with both sides struggling to adapt to what must have been the country’s smallest 11s pitch. After a stop-start few minutes, our front line found their rhythm, debutant Sina terrorising their defence early on. Rory had some excellent runs in behind, compounded by a brilliant technical display from our midfield. New man Oli and Doug were finding pockets of space to set up attacks, and we were soon peppering the goalkeeper. After 20 minutes or so, Rory broke in behind and was brought down unfairly by the opposing defender, before coolly slotting in the penalty to make it 1-0. A scrappy attacking barrage ensued, leading to a spill from the keeper which allowed us to play the ball into Rory to smack home the second across the goalmouth to make it 2-0.
We were feeling confident at half time, but it was clear the next goal after the break would be crucial. The start of the second half had little in the way of quality, until one of the opposition landed a textbook right hook into a baffled Doug to leave the home side a man down. Strangely, we switched off, and almost immediately their forward broke through the defence and was brought down for a penalty to Celtic. It was superbly dispatched, and the game was on again. Celtic brought pressure on, taking advantage of our lapse in concentration. But we withheld, and soon got back on top. What followed next must have been the most enjoyable 10 footballing minutes of my life.
If I’m honest, whether I’m watching or playing the games I’m not really thinking about the blogs, so I’m struggling to articulate what happened. In short, Rory, Sina, Doug and Matty just took the game to Celtic. Matty scored, and then minutes later smacked a free kick into the net via a deflection to bag his brace. Soon afterwards, Sina drilled a cross to Doug, who, having missing several chances, was only too happy to nestle the ball into the bottom corner. This was briefly interrupted by a complete lapse in focus from the defence, allowing the Celtic striker to lob keeper Greg from 30 yards out. In my excitement, I gave him a polite telling off which he wasn’t happy about, so I won’t say any more as he was otherwise flawless. Regardless, Rory broke through the back line and squared the ball to Matty to seal his hat trick, a GPR first.
It wasn’t the only milestone broken today - for the first time ever we have a positive goal difference. All in all, the lads were imperious, suggesting we may have really found our level. The standard was off last week, but we fought back to quash any lingering concerns that we may not be qualified for this division. I can’t wait for next week; it hits different when your team gets the W. Hard graft, desire, belief - today had it all. We had some great debut performances, the defence (shoutouts go to Bart and Robin out wide) gave Greg few shots to contend with, a fantastic midfield performance and a front line to be reckoned with for any defence. UP. THE. SALADS!
MOTM 🤌 = Starboy Matty was so good, I bought him some chips. He deserved the match ball and our pick for man of the match. Given he’d been injured for a year, Callum’s return to the side was seriously impressive, and he will be a welcome return for the season ahead. Honestly, most of the team could have an honourable mention. Not Dan S though, as these are ‘just [his] levels’.
DOTD 💀 = I told the lads I couldn’t think of an obvious candidate, and within a minute half the team had been mentioned, so make of that what you will. Also, Robin’s whiteboard.
