Tiger Kings
GPR 6 London Tigers Sunday 3
The Salads closed off September with three more crucial points against an under-staffed, albeit valiant, London Tigers side in a performance that ranged from cagey to free-flowing to outright bedlam. Consistency is king, however, and although I wasn’t actually expecting Rory to repeat last week’s hat-trick, he duly delivered on my request. It’s a good omen for the season ahead, as we have now doubled the points accumulated to this point in our first two years combined.
We didn’t get to see the away side until just minutes before kick-off, so we were keen to get proceedings going quickly. Counting just 9 orange shirts added to the anticipation as we realised we were facing a defensive shutout - at least until reinforcements arrived. Even in Sunday League it’s a rarity to see those numbers, and doing so makes it hard not to get a bit complacent about your chances. The first twenty minutes showed as much.
The Tigers showed their claws early, with a strong defensive position frustrating our early attacks. We pushed our defensive line unnaturally high in search of an early rout, the opposition’s long clearances threatened to push us back the other way. A lack of breakthrough made for some growing frustration on the pitch and the touchline. This was not helped by some A-grade mind games by the opposition, who had the referee on their side for much of the 90 minutes.
Despite this, we were the only team likely to score. This was compounded by a magical effort from Sina, whose thunderbolt rattled the bar from 25 yards and looked to have edged past the goal line, only for the ref to bring the ball back for a foul on Joel moments earlier. Eventually though, and somewhat mercifully, an incisive through-ball from Joel put Jeff clean through on goal. With just the keeper to beat he manoeuvred round and away from the trailing defender to make it 1-0.
At this point we hoped the opening goal would open the floodgates, but London Tigers, who by this point had brought themselves up to 10 men, showed few signs of letting the game slip completely out of their control. Our frustration was creeping into complacency, and shortly after going up, we were brought back down. A charge into the box from their striker was adjudged to have been halted illegally by Dan, making it two penalties in two games for the muppet.
The spot-kick was converted to level the scoring, but had the effect of giving us a reality check. Sina, determined to get his wonder goal, pounced on a bouncing clearance, controlled the ball with his chest, and let loose on the volley, only to see his shot smack the inside of the post to add yet more frustration to the first half.
Then came the crucial breakthrough. On his favoured left hand side, Joel looked up to find Gavin in space, and hit a beautiful cross to the birthday boy who, after trapping the ball in the box, passed it into the net from close range to make it 2 goals in 2 games.
Just minutes later, a similar cross field pass found Gav in space down the right. The Tigers, seeing their lino raise his flag, stopped playing. But with no whistle to be heard, our players kept playing. It was an easy tee up for Rory to open his account for the day with a clean striker’s finish.
Half-time, and things were finally looking secure. We kept the team-talk short and sweet, and brought on a few fresh legs to push on. It took Arran only his first touch to provide the desired effect, a curled flick threading through the defence to find Rory, who tamed the ball’s trajectory, before lobbing the onrushing keeper.
After this, we had several moments to finish our dinner and truly kill the game, but a blend of outstanding goalkeeping and lack of final product meant that the score held at 4-1 for a time. But Arran, keen to have a league debut to remember, provided his second moment of magic to put us firmly out of sight.
It started with Jeff, unable to convert a quick break. He recovered the ball on the touchline, skinned and out-muscled the defender and squared to Rory. The club’s record scorer played it to Arran on the edge of the box and, with elite control and composure, he danced past one defender and then placed it out of reach of the keeper’s gloves.
Then the last 20 minutes descended somewhat into chaos. A shove on Arran lead to a scuffle; some heavy disagreements over refereeing decisions ensued, leading to multiple game stoppages and yellow cards. By the end of the game, the sides shared two sinbins and six yellow cards, with the Salads unfairly on the receiving end of most of the punishments. In the midst of this, London Tigers snatched a goal with a brilliant free kick.
Luckily for us, Rory refused to give up on his second match ball in as many outings. Shortly before the end, he picked up a long ball, barrelled his way through a couple of defenders, and raced down the right flank before striking it beautifully into the corner to make the game 6-2. We conceded a goal late on, but the game was done, and another three points were secured, leaving us a cushy second place in the league table going into October.
The final action of the game saw Gavin brought down in the box, and the ref pointed to the spot. With all the usual penalty takers off the pitch and with more claim to take it than anyone else, the birthday boy stepped up to make his brace, only to fumble the opportunity. With three consecutive cup ties on the horizon, we’ll definitely need a bit of penalty taking in training…
MOTM 💫 = Rory just gets it done. What a player. What a man. Special shout out to Henry for coming down and running the line in the second half despite not even being part of the squad. he missed out on a bender, but what a man.
DOTD 👀 = Dan. Again.
