Strollers FC 4 - 2 Old Queens Head

22 November 2006

Like a man scared of flying who kisses the ground after stepping off an airplane, Stroller’s gladly ran out at Market Road again, after two consecutive weeks on the sand pit of Battersea Park.

Not that these two away games had been problematic, far from it, with four more points added onto the league total. Could the sparkling away for me replicated here against the first division new boys?

With two of the four lynch pins of the Battersea successes absent, one of which highly dubious, Gray shuffled his pack to include a Wosika and a new face in midfield, the German import Olaf.

Elsewhere, after a superb last twenty minutes against Camford, Levinger was restored to the lone forwards role. Within ten minutes this had paid off. A deft piece of control was followed by a beautiful finish inside the giant ten foot four keepers near post.

Both before and after this, Strollers had terrorised the Queen’s Head defence down the left flank, with O’Brien unleashing Keniry time after time.

A second breakthrough seemed inevitable and it duly arrived, again from the left foot of Levinger, again low past the nephilim occupying the OQH goal.

With Stroller’s playing well and with all eleven players contributing, the usual happened. Casual play saw a few half chances fall OQH’s way, and finally a gift even they couldn’t turn down. With possibly the slowest miss-kick ever witnessed on a FIFA regulation sized football pitch, that also nearly missed the goal, Queen’s Head were back at the races. A commanding two nil lead had been pegged back to an edgy two one.

A jittery next ten minutes paved way for what has to be one of the best goals Stroller’s have scored. Picking the ball up a few yards outside the area, Olaf proceeded to walk his way round three OQH defenders, and slot the ball calmly low and to the keepers left. Three one with only one team looking like winning.

At this juncture the worst that could happen was for injury to befall the Strollers. A clash with the opposition striker saw Stroud propelled into the on-rushing Jones, with both staying down.

Stroud surfaced first, with merely a groggy head, but for Jones the injury was more serious, trudging off at half time clutching his wrist. This was later confirmed to be a broken arm, with Jones, having just ‘established’ himself in the side due to being the squad’s only keeper, out for six weeks minimum.

After attending to the wounded with the frankly laughable first aid kit (no bandages? please), Gray sent Strollers back out with O’Brien in goal, and with the team instructed to be weary of throwing the first half’s hard work away.

Making life easy never comes natural to Strollers, and another goal was gifted to OQH before Barrett, who had enjoyed a fine game despite being asked to play at least four different positions during the ninety minutes, slotted home a penalty after Thomas had been felled by the keeper.

Sandwiched between the two second half goals was the Seamus ‘Patrick Bateman’ Lennon show, in which an errant kick and then push were aimed at two OQH players. The recipient of the push wasted no time in unleashing what can only be described as a girls punch which connected with the side of Lennon’s neck. Both players were instantly dismissed.

After a few more chances for Thomas and Barrett, the final whistle blew on what had been an eventful 90 minutes of football and boxing, injury and glory. A good solid continuation of recent good form, which should carry Strollers into the final three games before the winter break.

Match Details

MoM: TBC

4-5-1 (first half)
Jones – Stroud, Lennon, Tear, Bailey – Keniry, Wosika, O’Brien, Olaf, Barrett – Levinger
4-5-1 (second half)
Jones (Thomas, 45)– Stroud, Lennon (Sent off, 78), Tear, Bailey – Keniry, Wosika,O’Brien , Olaf, Barrett – Levinger (McAteer, 65)