Round 20 as it happened ...

After a well-earned 2 week break it was back to the serious business of
Metropolitan League Football. Amateur football at its very best, in
Victoria. This worthy scribe took advantage of the break to enjoy the warm
Queensland sunshine, catching the Victory game in Sydney on the way.
However, back at Larpent the weather hadn't been playing the game, but the
ground was still considered to be ok to play. So with batteries recharged
and arse well and truly in gear it's on with this weekend's fairy story. Are
we sitting comfortably? Good. Then we'll begin, and we'll find out whether
our story has a happy ending or a sad one.

Reserves

Glen Waverley (0) 1 v 0 (0) Meadow Park

The reserves were looking to add to their winning streak and were at full
strength for this mid-table clash with Meadow Park. Even Guillermo put in an
appearance. We had to check his player profile photograph on the website
though as some of the players were unsure as to who he was. Also Eduardo
managed to get to the game on time. So Sir Alex, with a full squad
available, had no hesitation in setting up the team in an adventurous 3 - 5
- 2.

Good news this week was we had a referee. The bad news this week was we
forgot to mark the ground. The lines were only just visible and try as we
might we couldn't coax our weary line marker into action. Never mind, the
ref thought it was ok - just, so it was game on. Neither team took control
in the early exchanges as the players came to terms with the sticky pitch.
Chances were few and far between and neither keeper saw much action. So to
relieve the boredom the visiting keeper challenged himself to see if he
could shout the loudest and make the stupidest remarks. He also claimed a
gold medal for whinging. Not content with having a go at our players, the
referee and his own players he also managed to have a go at the canteen lady
- Mrs Foster. Not quite sure he fully realised the implication of this but
dodgy hotdogs have a nasty habit of coming back to haunt you. Hope he puts
his toilet roll in the fridge.

Anyway back to the action. Alex Martin was again showing his opposite number
a clean pair of heels on the left side of midfield. Savva and Eduardo have
built up a good understanding in the middle of the park and gradually took
control. As the game wore on the local lads created the more meaningful
chances and Matt Soon was able to demonstrate his wonderful skill of missing
from point blank range. This game was beginning to go the way of the first
encounter with Meadow Park, with Glen Waverley dominating but not able to
take advantage. As time wore on the pressure mounted and it was left to
man-of-the-match Savva to finally break the deadlock. Whilst Savva scored,
it was slick passing from Al to Bill G, who then slipped a wonderful through
ball to his brother. Keep it in the family boys. This proved to be the only
goal of a tight game and in the end the Waverley boys deserved to take the
three points. Special mention again this week goes to Bill Orologas who once
again kept order in the back line. Matt Depta, Al and Bill G are all
benefiting from the experience.

Catching Sir Alex before he slipped off for the senior's game he was full of
praise for his team. "That was a nervy ending but we deserved it. Now we've
got 5 wins in a row. What would we have given for that at the beginning of
the season?" We said "One in a row would have been good."

Seniors

Glen Waverley (0) 1 v 1 (1) Meadow Park

Now on to the serious business of the afternoon, but not before we enjoyed
watching the high-speed synchronised pitch-marking demonstration performed
by John "Straight-n-True" Frantzis. He created a wonderful centre circle
that looked more like the orbit of Pluto and a centre line that wandered
more than Louis Armstrong. Anyway, the ref was happy so for the second time
of the day it was game on. Steve V had only one late change to contend with
as Julian called in sick. Justin was dropped back into to cover in the back
line and the tireless Ben Witten was drafted into midfield.

As with the Reserves in the previous game, both sides took a while to come
to terms with the sticky pitch. We might drop into a little Latin at this
point and refer to the term "whingemus maximus". The literal translation is
fairly obvious and one which Meadow Park should have as its motto. They
whinged at everything - the pitch, the referee, the lines, the weather (it
was sunny). So to make them happy, we let them score. About midway through
the first half, they were allowed free access through the middle and a
fierce shot beat Alex all ends up. A few long range efforts were about all
the visitors could muster, but the local lads did manage a few of their own.
The highlight would be Hayden's effort from just outside the box. He
collected the ball on the left, jinked inside, beating a couple of players
then unleashed a fearsome drive, only to see it cannon off the post. The
goalkeeper made a spectacular attempt at a save, but the splat he made when
gravity took over was worth the admission money.

 Tireless work from Anouk, Micky V and Matey, along with direction and
leadership from Hayden kept the Glen Waverley boys in the game. The visitors
were lying in second spot on the ladder and were obviously expecting an
easier game than they were getting. So it was back to the whinging. Best one
of the day had to be the comment made after a clumsy tackle by Petey. "Come
on ref, he's being doing it all game" came the cry from the Meadow Park
Neanderthal in midfield. Only thing was the idiot hadn't noticed Petey had
only come on 2 minutes before. The number 6 on his shirt must have been his
IQ.

 But our lads stuck to the task in hand and after a few more half chances,
Nanos finally smacked one into the back of the net to bring the scores
level. From then on it was left to Alex to keep the boys in the game making
2 point blank saves. Top effort, Alex and it shows the value of having a
half-decent keeper. The last word was left to the referee, who was obviously
sick of the whinging too. When asked why he blew up early, he said "I've got
somewhere more important to be." Fair enough.

And so after being thumped 1-5 the last time the lads played Meadow Park, a
1-1 draw was a good return although the lads played well enough to have won
the game. Steve V was in agreement with our observations. "I agree with your
observations" he said. "That's the best we've played for a couple of weeks
and the lads should be proud of themselves." We noticed that we haven't
played for a couple of weeks, so we could hardly argue.

It's our final road trip of the season next week, to the far off delights of
Broadmeadows. Let's steamroller them as we prepare for the final game of the
season against the Champions Upfield. Wouldn't it be nice to take the gloss
off their party by spoiling their unbeaten record? See you next week, unless
I get a better offer.