WorldNet 2002
The following morning some of us got up for breakfast. People like Phil Bray
didn't appear. Nick Bray, Chris Foster and John Currie appeared but none of
them could look at their breakfast and that wasn't a good sign!
We made it over to our pitch - surprise, surprise it was the furthest one
away again. As the minutes ticked over it looked like we'd only have about 7
players for kick off but one by one the others turned up.
Phil Bray and his mob slowly came over looking like they'd had an attack of
the munchies and carrying a pizza box. They all still looked somewhat worse
for wear.
Paul McCudden waltzed over at the last minute like he didn't have a care in
the world and Smiffy was even later running over to the pitch and arriving
on kick-off. We had to wait for him to put his boots on and get on the
pitch.
So what a bunch to play this knockout game against Derby. The team was:
James Augustus in goal, Phil Abbott, Phil Bray, Chris Foster and Kev
Batchelor in defence, midfield of Bernie Muollo, Paul McCudden, Nick Bray
and Chris Parr and the usual strike force of John Currie and Paul Smith.
Paul Smith did a surprisingly lot of running for someone who had just
arrived from a night out in Nottingham. Unfortunately our other players who
had been out to the early hours of the morning drinking very strange
flavoured vodkas were not quite as good.
Phil "I'll look after them" Bray had a pretty awful match and showed that he
was very reliant on the one foot - in fact at one stage it took him an
eternity to try and clear the ball because he was lining it up on his left
foot. Needless to say he got tackled.
Chris "I need a drink" Foster was as bad as Phil and it is a miracle we
never conceded a goal. He did the same as Phil trying to dribble out of
defence past about 3 Derby players and losing the ball.
John "I'll have eggs & bacon, okay maybe not" Currie missed a sitter of a
chance in the second half and turned a shot into a nice backpass.
Nick "my uncle is a good influence on me" Bray was pretty awful in midfield
but seemed to do what was needed of him.
Chris "I'm glad I don't work with Phil anymore" Parr missed two good chances
to score from crosses that were put on a plate for him. However, he did
really get into the whole "we've got to beat Derby" attitude especially
considering he is rumoured to support Bolton.
Everyone else carried the drunks and we battled hard. We definitely
outplayed Derby and even their players said that after the game but we didn'
t do enough to win the game outright. With the score 0-0 at full time it
went into golden goal and there were no goals scored there too.
Special
mention must go to Steve Parker who made some great clearing headers near
the end of the match.
Derby also had quite a few direct free-kicks outside the box (free-kicks
given away by the drunken 6) and fortunately were more interested in arguing
who was going to take them rather than concentrating on the free-kicks
themselves.
We had a couple of chances and there were a few good breakaway runs by the
midfield but it was scoreless after extra time too - penalties.
So the five penalty takers were Paul McCudden, John Currie, Chris Foster,
Nick Bray and Chris Parr.
Derby were first and scored their first penalty, Paul McCudden put his away
very well, the next Derby player hit the post, the ball ricocheted back into
play, hit James in the back and almost went in off the other post.
Fortunately that didn't happen and despite the protests by the Derby players
that James was well off his line, the penalty stood. We just needed to score
the rest of ours. John Currie, Nick Bray and Chris Foster all finished their
penalties well - they must have been sobering up. With Derby not missing any
more of theirs it came down to Chris Parr's - if he missed, sudden death! -
He hit the ball straight at the keeper and he dived out of the way. Goal!!
And we were through to the next round. Great to do it, even better as it was
against Derby.
Now the bad news was we had Middlesboro in the next round. They have won
Worldnet three times and are a very good side. We had also heard in their
previous game they had had two players sent off so that meant they would be
suspended.
The team for this game was :
James Augustus in goal, Defence of Kev Batchelor, Phil Bray, Chris Foster
and Steve Parker. Midfield of Paul McCudden, Bernie Muollo, Nick Bray and
Chris Parr and a strike partnership of Paul Smith and John Currie.
What can I say about this game - they were too good for us. You just needed
to take one look at the side before kick off and they were all much bigger
than us and all of them looked like footballers! Something that our players
very much don't do is look like footballers!
We battled very hard and everyone gave their all. We knew the only way we'd
beat them was by nicking it - by scoring from a set piece and late in the
second half their keeper made a good save from John Currie. The game was
over by then though.
With the scores at 0-0 the ball was put into our area, James Augustus
fumbled the ball and unfortunately it fell straight to one of their players
who practically fell over the ball and scored. James made up for his mistake
in the second half with a fantastic save from a pile driver of a shot late
on.
After the first goal went in Middlesboro relaxed a little and played some
great football. They were too good for us. The second goal was blasted in
from a corner and their third a slightly dodgy and very unlucky penalty.
A special note must go to David James who asked to be subbed off again!
We lost 3-0 but that wasn't a fair reflection of the game and we were going
home happy with our weekend's efforts. Some of us weren't so happy when we
got stuck on the M1 back down but hey, this is England. (It is much better
in Sweden).
Now for an awards ceremony
of sorts for all the players - some will win more than others and some of them are insulting - but who cares!
Well that is the report of Worldnet 2002 - My apologies for the delay but I
was off on holiday with Ulrika - I mean Nancy.
Sven Goran.