‘The Edge’ - CDJFL Cup Quarter Final v Crowborough Athletic January 29, 2008
Posted by editor in : Matches , trackbackSome say, he’s a special advisor to Barack Obama and Dancing on Ice, all we know is that he provides anonymous match reports and calls himself ‘The Edge’…
Football is a game of two halves, but this one felt like a game of two and a half halves. The unofficial time keeper estimated that the second half ran for no less than 43 minutes. Indeed, even Danny doing the line got the sweats on requiring him to shed his jacket.
We weren’t sure whether the ref thought he was on an hourly rate or had a sundial for a time piece, so every time a cloud passed an extra couple of minutes got added on. Whatever it was the extra extra extra time had a dramatic effect on the final result, which really wasn’t a true reflection of the match and really did flatter what was a good, but by no means superior, Crowborough Athletic side.
Indeed, It would be fair to say that with a penalty gifted after six minutes and three goals scored in time added on to the time added on, with a bit more added on for good luck, the difference should realistically have been a couple of goals. Given the fact that Lady luck had decided to look the other way for the morning and nothing seemed to fall in favour of the Grasshoppers in terms of chances, the squad should take a good deal of comfort from a performance that saw them match a strong Crowborough team.
The writing was on the wall early on when a Toby shot was well saved by an excellent block from the Crowborough goalkeeper (who was so big that someone swore blind they’d seen him park his car before the match) only for the rebound to come off Fergus and loop over the bar. Another effort came off the post and time after time the Crowborough goalkeeper pulled off fantastic saves to deny Grasshoppers the goal they richly deserved. Congratulations must go to him, he was immense, I’m sure I saw him wave to his proud wife and kids after one of his saves!
It was evident that approaching half time, or was it a quarter past half time, that there was a technical difficulty with the refs time piece as the Crowborough coaches were advising him that Sunday was rapidly approaching and they were keen to have the whistle blown to maintain their half time lead. And so with the sun dipping behind the hills the whistle was blown for half time. Crispy had battled hard despite crippling stomach aches, showing the determination and grit that was an example to his team, but finally the imminent reappearance of his breakfast caused him to retire at the end of the first half, only to make a dramatic "Premier League" recovery (Christiano Ronaldo would have been proud) and return part way through the second half.
The Grasshoppers came out and early in the second half and Henry, who was starting out for the first time this season fired home from a corner, having done his bit he then found himself back in goal after Regan had to come off with a bad foot injury, having gone in bravely on a Crowborough attacker and come off the worse.
Things were very evenly balanced before a couple of good breaks and cool finishes by the Crowborough forwards gave them a comfortable lead. It was about this time that it all started to go wrong. Whether it was the fact that it had started to get dark, or that mothers could be heard calling kids for their tea, or perhaps the ref thought he had come to officiate at a sport relief footballathon that the game seemed to carry on and on and on and on………
To take nothing away from Crowborough they battled on and took their chances very well, but did score three further goals in the fifteen minute kick about at the end. That’s not to question the result, they won fair and square and we wish them well for the Semi-Finals.
Again the Squad all contributed as we have come to expect, Harry C’s absence at the back was felt but Matt had another solid performance at the back and grows in stature with each game. He showed the passion and commitment expected in a cup match, and he did a damn fine lions roar as his passion manifested itself to show the wild beat within. Keep it up Matt.
And so as darkness descended the final whistle blew and as the boys needed to ready for school they trudged off with heavy hearts and the Crowborough goalie celebrated with his wife and kids before getting back into the car and driving off for a busy weeks work.
Sadly that’s the end of the cup run, but it’s now time to concentrate on the competitive league which we go into for the second half of the season. We’ve seen how well we can compete, so there’s nothing to stop us getting up there and showing what the Grasshoppers are all about. To do that you all have to show that fight, commitment, effort and belief, both on the training pitch and on match days, so lets get our heads down, our sleeves rolled up and get on with winning that ‘B’ League.
Lets all be up for it next week!!!!!
(Note: As always this column is a tongue in cheek review of the match and is in no way meant to be a criticism of the referee who did a fine job, we appreciate him giving up an extensive amount of his time to officiate at our games.)
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