Well, Glebe didn’t have a great reputation before this game, 7 red cards helped that out and a bench that’s caused more misery than the Old Bailey. Sheppey on the other hand are nicer than your uncle Kevin, playing great football but with a softer underbelly than Dawn French. How both sides wish they could swap a little piece of each other’s attributes.
With this in mind it was imperative that strong officials were appointed for the fixture so when the kid out of Beavis and Butthead ran out we somehow knew it would be a trying day.
Sheppey lined up the same as the last few weeks but with Mahoney dropping to the bench, Kwasi coming in at left Back and Brunt playing in midfield. The home side who due to suspensions were fielding the Kray Twins in the middle, looked a physical side which might explain the red card situation.
The game kicked off with not really a lot to say about the opening stages, a few 50-50’s were won by Glebe, the odd cynical bit of plat that went unnoticed by the red and linesmen but no real decent football of note. The home side seemed to be the better team without much penetration, Ralphy and the colonel mopping everything up with relative ease. Going forward, again we flattered to deceive, good flowing football but the front three of LHO, the Shrewsbury Shifter and Remmell were feeding on more scraps than Andy Constables Dog, Gurty in the middle seemed to be up against it against the Home midfielders who wouldn’t have looked out of place wearing balaclava’s, every time him or Hiccham got on the ball their opponents took it as a personal crusade to stop them one way or another. Still at least they’d get some protection from the officials………..One such challenge saw Gurty go in for a header only to be met by a flailing boot that caught him flush in the mouth leaving more him bloodied and toothless than a Stan Collymore date. After a fair few minutes our lad got back up and dusted himself down, the ref, who used this time to sort his pokemon cards out took no action. This seemed to spur our intrepid heroes on, suddenly the passing looked sharper, movement was better, just needed that spark. That nearly came from Remmell, picking the ball up on the Halfway line R.E.M beat one of the SHINY HAPPY PEOPLE, then two, three and glided in On goal, pulled the trigger but was foiled by their keeper who in fairness did well. The hosts created a few half chances, drew a couple of standard saves from Josh but all in all when the half time whistle went the Home team were probably happier than us.
This gave the Home dressing room a chance to wind themselves and their team up even more, when they emerged for the second half they looked so fired up they looked like extra’s from Platoon, Sheppey sauntered out, calm, laid back and handsome.
Within two minutes of the re-start the ever reliable Colonel played a blind Back pass Ray Charles would have been proud of, their forward overcame his surprise and gave Glover no chance, 1-0. This fired the bench up even more, barking and growling after every challenge, the ref by now looking more nervous than Ryan Giggs at a family wedding was oblivious to the obvious intimidation from their no.10 who by now was angrier than a hungry woman. Glebe get a throw, the ball was launched into the area, the forward shrugged off a challenge and got a shot in, Glover dives full length to make a great but could only push the ball into the path of one of theirs who from fully five yards netted. 2-0.
Sheppey bring on the captain Ian, their caveman seemed to take an instant dislike to him, after a challenge cruder than Bernard Manning, Ian jumped up only to be accosted by their no.10 who grabbed him by the throat, the linesman who we were stood behind chose to look at his watch, keys, phone, diary anything but the fracas until I questioned him, then he meekly waved his flag almost apologetically, the ref who by now had completely retreated into his own shirt stopped the game, consulted the cowardly lion with the flag and duly booked Ian for what I can only assume was a nasty assault on their players hand with his Adam’s apple, much to the delight of the feral bench. Sheppey to their credit still tried, R.E.M making a STAND and pulling the strings then became the focal point for the angry mob. As we know R.E.M is never one to shy away as they probably realised so it was hitting up.
As a last throw of the dice on comes Selwyn Froggatt, fit again and raring to go, twice He got to the bye line but both times we failed to capitalise leaving just enough time for him to somehow also upset the bear with toothache despite their obvious size and weight difference and then the ref decided he’d ignored enough and blew for full time.
Summary
Again good flowing football without getting the points, the physical approach seems to have done for us again and although we brought about our own demise as Ernie pointed out to me, we never get that lucky break, bad back pass that you don’t deserve. It’s not for the lack of effort or endeavour that we aren’t getting the results which will turn in time. Keep the Faith and as LHO tweeted our support is valuable when we win or lose and no one is more disappointed than the team.
MOM R.E.M who is stamping his authority on games more with no shortage of skill. As he knows when we don’t win EVERYBODY HURTS but he seems to show it more.
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