Remember Remember The Bloody Offside Rule
GPR 1 Chiswick Celtic Reserves 1
A clash of the non-league titans ended all square this week, as turbulent decision making mixed with an all-too-familiar injury crisis scuppered the three points for the Ibrox side. In truth, either team could have come away with victory were it not for some heroic goalkeeping at both ends of the pitch, and we’ll be making sure to look after our MOTM Greg for stepping up in the absence of both our manager and captains.
It’s rare to see a low score line at our level, and in such an historic fixture, but all the key action happened within the first fifteen minutes. We struck first soon after kickoff, a long ball over the top allowing Jeffrey - who made his debut after a multi-pound transfer from Eutectic - to put the defenders under pressure only to be tackled at the final hurdle. Fortunately enough, Rory was in the vicinity to pounce on the loose ball and bundle in the opener. But just minutes later, we were on the receiving end of a counter attack and their forward lobbed Greg who was taken aback by the decision to allow play to go on. The linesman waved his flag and our entire team were calling for what we thought was a blatant offside decision, but it never came and the game was level again. At this point, to compound our frustrations, GPR’s infamous glass ankles resurfaced. Rory went down first with a groin injury, followed by Oli who suffered a foot fracture after a robust tackle.
Neither side had quite enough to pull ahead for the rest of the half, although both sides came close a couple of times. Going into the break, with the game on a knife’s edge, there was little left to say but for us to remove the pressure on our side and continue at the other end. The second 45 followed much in the same suit as the first, albeit with more scares for both teams. I’ve never yelled ‘clear it’ so much, and if Sam hadn’t made a goal line clearance late in the game I’d have been yelling even louder. Greg made several saves including some admirable sweeper work to keep the game level. Bart, Alan and Mark all followed with injuries to leave a bare 11 to finish the game in anxiety. At the death, Jeffrey broke past the last man and was through on goal, but a brilliant tip from the opposing keeper sent it out for a corner and the game was, more or less, settled afterwards.
It’s never nice to feel like you could have done more, but we know Celtic will be feeling the same and after a three game losing streak, we can take solace in a point and go again next week. As ever, the key is this: Up The Salads. We had another debutant in Cedou and a couple of performances from players that haven’t been able to afford much game time recently so there’s plenty to be pleased about. See you next week.
MOTM 🤌 = Greg’s fine shot stopping and ability to respond to pressure kept us in it at times and he definitely deserves this week’s accolade.
DOTD 💀 = Clearances.
