16 Dec 2007: Grasshoppers 2:2 Haywards Heath December 20, 2007
Posted by editor in : Uncategorized , trackbackThis was the rematch of our first game of the season, when we didn’t exactly fire on all cylinders. Haywards Heath have had some disciplinary problems this season, and it was easy to see why. Some of the behaviour on show was choice and the use of Berstein’s Restrictive Code much in evidence.
We had heard that almost every team to play HH this year have had at least one person sent off, and research showed that most were for retaliation. So our players were warned before the game to be careful. In the face of some awful provocation, our players behaved admirably and we escaped without even a caution. It is odd to think that there are people involved in this league who think that it is an acceptable part of the game to behave like this though. Our spectators were threatened and abused by the opposing players and wrongly accused of abuse by the opposing linesman. The referee obviously knew that if he applied the letter of the law that HH would be quickly reduced to below the minimum permissible and so he chose to turn a deaf ear to the vast majority of what everybody else heard.
In the middle of all this, a football match happened. For all of their nasty behaviour, HH have some talented players and some of their football was good to watch. But so was some of ours. When we keep it on the deck and move it quickly we are more than a match for any team in this league. J-P scored what is becoming a trademark free kick in the first half and Scott doubled the lead early in the second half with a cool finish with the outside of his right foot. As with a number of games this season, we created more chances, but couldn’t put them away, either through nervous finishing or good goalkeeping.
We also continue to look nervous at the back and HH scored twice in the last quarter of the match to earn a point. The first was a decent enough low shot which crept in at the post giving Josh little chance- ironically just after he had made a miracle save to keep out a shot at the other post. The second was our Achilles Heel of the season, where we just allowed a cross to be headed in unchallenged. This was the fourth of four free headers we allowed in the game, which must be down to concentration.
It was good to see Sam Taylor back to something approaching his best. He was always involved- even after the final whistle when his offer of a handshake was met with a kick. Nip was also lively, firstly up front and then switching wide right. MoM this week was J-P, who put in a lot of work in midfield and scored a cracker. CRAP award is a tough one, but probably has to be Skelly, for talking tough, whilst asking Callum to save him if the other guy turned nasty. Or Jake for shopping Skelly!
In truth this was not one of the more pleasant afternoons I have spent watching football, but unfortunately it seems that it is accepted by the league, so at least we know that we dealt with it and stood up to them.
Our last match before Christmas is on Sun 23, ko 10.30 at Hassocks. Merry Christmas everyone.
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