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After two weeks of normal football scores we were due a
Sunday League classic - and boy did we get it.
Ladzio, our old sparring partners from the Premier Division
have, like us, fallen on slightly harder times.
A couple of years ago this was a top-flight,
top-of-the-table blockbuster.
But now in the Championship - away from the prying eyes of
the tabloid reporters and Sky cameras - we are free to play out crazy ten-goal
thrillers at the Marshes.
Forced squad rotations saw four more Recreativo debuts -
taking our total number of players this year to 22. Twenty two! And we still
only had the bare 11 out there.
Some sloppy defending led to three first-half Ladzio goals,
all speedy breakaway moves that were tidily tucked away.
Disaster struck when Ladzio made it 4-0 just after the break.
But you know what? We started scoring. Finally.
Was it the Mourinho-like tactical shake-up at half-time?
No. More likely the refreshments kindly provided by the Zaga
Supermarket, Clapton.
Actually, no again. It was most likely the series of
brilliant free-kicks from Joe Haley - and the deadly conversions that followed.
First, Tom W flashed a header into the far corner.
The ginger Pele was at it again when he sent in another for
our Italian new-boy Toni to flick in. Game on.
Ladzio were on the rocks now and Toni scored a cracking solo
goal, picking up a long-ball, driving through their backline and slipping past
their keeper.
Fifteen minutes earlier we were on the end of a proper
hammering. But now, at 4-3, and Joe H sending in his laser free-kicks were we
right back in it.
We were not even put off by a Ladzio goal. 5-3, with 20
minutes to go. Twenty minutes!
Andrew R - who had hit the post at 4-3 (I think. Who really
knows what on earth was happening in those zany 25 minutes?) capped an
impressive second-half performance by scoring from another Joe H free-kick.
But then. Another goal from Ladzio finally killed off a
ballsy Reccy fightback.
If Recreativo 2010 or Ladzio 2009 could have seen this then
they probably would have all stopped playing and just starting talking about
the global economic collapse for a bit of light relief.
Yet we displayed enough guts to show we might get something
out of this year.
Team: Radu, Dan D, Jimmy, David B, Eddy, Jordan, Joe H, Tom
W, Paul C, Andrew, Toni. Goals: Tom W, Toni (2), Andrew