Good evening ladles and jelly spoons, how are you all this fine and
beautiful Sunday (or whatever day you happen to stumble upon this)? We are
all doing splendidly as you will no doubt gather, since you would have had
an inkling from the scores this weekend. A good day for both sides although
not without its drama's and drama queens, as you will find out if you read
on. So without any further ado or procrastination, or beating around the
bush, or blatant time-wasting here we go with this week's action packed
report ...

Weather .... actually, a nice day. Not sunny but mild nonetheless. There was
no breeze either, so a jolly pleasant afternoon to play and watch football.
Pitch ... Not a blade of grass to be seen, well real grass anyway.
Crowd ... A fairly healthy 60 or 70. Some Scottish lads with tourettes on
their side, and a vuvuzela on ours.
Canteen ... Same room as the home side changing room, so didn't try the
sausages, we didn't know where they'd been.

There'd been a bit of trash talk on the social media, with us playing
against a couple of old boys this weekend. As it turn out, one held his head
high with some dignity and the other? Well, we can only hope things turn out
well for him at some point. Anyway, it all added a bit of spice to the local
derby as we found ourselves on the Aston artificial pitch. A nice set up,
but the changing rooms need to be upgraded. The smell of wee is still
lingering.

The reserves were affected by a couple of forced changes. Hyphenated Simon
was a late withdrawal due to sickness and Avish and Sammy were back up into
the "ones". Nonetheless, the lads could again call on the usual ready and
willing youngsters from the U18's - Vass, Alex V, Lachie Mac, Scotty B and
Jack D. With Nick in goal, Peter S, back after an injury lay-off, Muzz,
Manch, Micky P, Theo and Seany, the boys were primed and ready.

Now it has to be said, no matter who takes to the pitch in the reserves
these days, the quality of football is of a very high standard. All right,
it's not Barca or Man U, but given the chance the lads do knock the ball
around well. It was no surprise then that they had Aston on the back foot
early. Playing down either flank, early chances fell to both Micky P and
Manch. Neither could capitilise, but the home keeper was on his game. A
young lad who kept his side in the game with a good pair of safe hands.

Some of the late tackling from the home team went unpunished as Petey can
testify. Alex V had the measure of his man in the middle of the park and was
enjoying more freedom than he would be used to. However he couldn't get out
of the way of one tackle and a free-kick was given just inside their half.
Up stepped Justin who whipped in a super ball into the box. The ensuing
confusion saw the normally reliable young keeper take his eye off the ball
and in stepped Sean to snatch the chance and grab the opener in the 26th
minute.

Aston were stunned into action and with a couple of long balls, the Waverley
defence was under pressure for the first time. Most of it was dealt with
fairly comfortably but as the lads tried to play the ball out, rather than
lump it long, there was a quick turnover. Their lad was played through and
he slotted home the equaliser with 35 minutes gone. The next major talking
point came a few moments later. With another long ball from Aston, Nick was
one on one with their striker and the inevitable happened. Nick brought the
lad down, just outside the box. After due consideration, the ref decided to
red card Nick on the basis he was last man. Free-kick yes, red card?
Debatable. We would have asked for one if it was the other way. With no sub
keeper available it was up to Justin to take up the challenge and blimey did
he do well.

The rumpus died down and as halftime fast approached, the lads got their
noses back in front again. Theo won a magnificent challenge in the middle of
the park and put Micky P clean through with a superb ball. Micky is riding a
wave of confidence at the moment and happily snared his 13th goal of the
season. Is that the sound of "Seniors calling" we hear? Should be.

So the challenge facing the lads in the second half was going to be a tough
one. However they rose to the challenge magnificently. Amidst all the
bitching, moaning and no end of foul language managed to grab the win. The
home side had scored an equaliser early in the half but I have no idea how
(header I hear), since part of my job is to go missing at any time during
the second half of the reserves game.

When I did get back to see some action, I did see Muzz get the well-deserved
winner. 2 point blank shots were superbly saved by the young keeper, but
Muzz was there on the rebound of the second shot to slot home his first of
the season. better late than never Muzz. This was in the 83rd minute and the
lads held on bravely to secure another valuable three points. Another
incident of note was one of their verbally challenged Scottish dudes who
managed to pick up a red card six minutes after coming on as a sub. A
record? Who knows, and quite frankly who gives a sh*t.

A great team performance from the lads today against trying opposition.
Tough luck on Scotty Bearder who rolled his ankle late in the game after
only being on the pitch for a few minutes. Hope it's not too bad. But to him
and the rest of the boys, great stuff.

With the sound of fuffing and cuffing still ringing in our ears, we settled
back to see if the senior boys could back to winning ways. Hold onto your
hats, here it comes.

Our second helping of football for the day was served up by the senior boys.
With Jarrod and Nick Mav missing from this week's line up, Sam and Lloydy
were drafted in as a more than able replacements. The main change this week
though was positional. Micky V was pushed up into midfield and Metin was
given a job to do, out wide on the right side of midfield. The new pairing
up front was Prashan and Marty. Would this do the trick this week? The
result was a resounding yes.

It was clear that the lads really enjoyed playing on the perfect surface,
especially Prashan who gave a polished performance up front. Metin certainly
enjoyed his new position as well and looked more than comfortable on the
right, giving his fullback a torrid time.

Like the reserves before them, the senior boys knocked the ball around well
and tried playing football at every opportunity. The locals had a couple of
big lads in the backline though and they coped with most of the Waverley
attacks. Shame though, that they ended up being a bit one-dimensional with
the long diagonal ball out to the right just about every time they got the
ball.

The game was pretty enjoyable nonetheless and made more entertaining by the
ref. A couple of head-scratching decisions, not least the decision at the 10
minute mark to give Aston a penalty. We were all watching the ball as
Alistair came out to clear the danger from a corner, when the ref blew his
whistle and pointed to the spot. He then yellow carded Met, for what we have
no clue. Still wondering, we then watched as the Aston forward was given two
chances to show how good he was at taking penalties. The first being
disallowed for encroachment. Al was beaten both times but he guessed the
right way and almost got his fingers to the second.

Against the run of play, Aston had their noses in front and for 14 minutes
they enjoyed the feeling. Like all good things though, it didn't last as
that man Prashan smashed home the equaliser. A move down the left involving
Alex and Lloyd, saw the ball end up with Prashan with his back to goal. An
exquisite turn and shot in the blink of eye, and Prashan cracked it home
from 10 yards out.

The teams then played out the rest of the half pretty much even-steven and
the only other incident worthy of note was the bone-crunching tackle by
Micky V, that earned him a yellow card. A text book tackle that clearly won
the ball was seen that way by the ref, who was more inclined to sympathise
with the Aston player's acting performance. Tough game, football.

The second half was a tense affair with both sides enjoying a fair amount of
possession and chances. Kon, Micky V and Metin all had long range efforts
either saved or blaze wide. The worst had to be Alex's though. Poor lad's a
bit down on confidence and the last opportunity he had from a free-kick had
the corner flag quaking on its pole. At the other Alistair was giving a
stand-out performance in goal. He commanded his box with authority and made
some excellent one-on-one saves to keep his side in the game.

Prashan had been feeling left out since his goal in the first half and
couldn't resist putting in a fierce-some challenge on an Aston player, in
the middle of the park, which earned him a yellow. Never mind that the guy
was twice his size. With time ticking away, both coaches would have been
forgiven if they'd settle for a draw, since both sides had had their
chances. The winner though came the way of Waverley via a route reminiscent
of one the goals in the reserves game. A long through ball was played
directly into the Aston box. The young keeper made a right dog's breakfast
of collecting the ball and in stepped Micky Pierce to slot home the winner.
We told you we could hear the seniors calling, and he let no-one down when
the call up came. On for Alex, he made some good runs and caused the
confusion necessary to create the chance. Micky is one of those rare players
in our short history to manage to score for both teams on the same day.

There was a couple of nervy moments towards the end as Aston threw caution
to the wind. A couple of corners and some long balls though was all they
could muster and ultimately their challenge fizzled and died on the sound of
the referee's whistle. A grand win and finally the long drought came to an
end. This was a solid silver team performance. Hard work and everyone
putting their bodies on the line for the team. Peter Kelly led the backline
with authority, Alistair in goal and Micky V in the middle were the stars.
But everyone played their part on the day and well done to one and all.

Six points today and the challenge of another 4 matches still ahead, sees
both teams still in with a shout of top three. The reserves still hold on to
top spot and the senior boys can still climb to second with a good run in.

All to play for and looking good. See you all next week at
Larpent/Lum/GWN/Southern or my backyard.... delete where applicable.