2004-5 Season
Kenchels FC 2 Japanese XI 2
Last time out against the Japanese, it was Pearl Harbour. This latest niggly encounter had more in common with the Sands of Iwojima, starring John ‘Duke’ Murphy and Robin ‘Beer to Eternity’ Moore.
We came away with an honorable draw – which was doubly hard on the Japanese ‘cos they have difficulty with the letter ‘r’. We could just as easily have nicked a winner and at times were so dominant it was hard to believe they were the same team that trounced us last autumn.
It was Terry B, honorary skipper for his 100th game, who set the tone for a bold, brave ‘chels performance. ‘I’m sick of losing to these f******* Japs,’ he said in the changing room, ’so let’s do’em.’
They were superquick, not to say nippy, coming forward and were one-nil up after a fast break and a left-footed shot to beat Craig. The second goal came not long afterwards when a poor kick from Craig was intercepted outside the box.
We didn’t really deserve to be two down when we were so dominant, particularly in midfield where EP, Mrs Murphy and Jose were winning everything. It was all the more frustrating because we’d failed to take a hatful of chances.
There was a fair deal of tetchiness throughout the half, with shirt-pulling, shoving, ankle-tapping and what not going on all over the place. EP, tired of all this, decided to kick their No 14 (the principal villain) into outer space. It was a comedy classic, with the aforesaid scallywag ending up on his arse after a brief flight into the stratosphere.
But it was John Murphy who really snapped after a kicking, shoving, pulling moment down towards our right-hand corner flag at the end of the half. He had his legs taken out from under him kamikaze style and went for the culprit like the fine upstanding Dubliner he is. A general melee ensued with the referee (another Dub) torn between joining in and calming things down.
We came out fighting – or shouting at the ref in Stevie B’s case – in the second half and about ten minutes in Jake got on the end of an Alex corner and pinged it in off the post.
Dominant in midfield and solid at the back, there was a period when they couldn’t get out of their own half. Alex was running around behind them and popping crosses in or winning corners. The inevitable came to pass and Mrs Murphy leapt like a salmon to score the equaliser from one of these with about 15 minutes to go.
The Japanese came back to life briefly and put us under pressure for the remainder. We defended a series of corners and Craig pulled off one fantastic save and there were a few tense moments in the goalmouth.
The lineup: Craig, Terry, Wayne, Tom T, Stevie B, Newbods, Jose, Robin, John Murphy, Alex, Jake (Subs: Den for Tom T, Chris Morgan for Terry, Euan for Newbods, Gavin for Robin – or something like that)
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