Sun.10th Oct.2010 – Sunderland Vets v Morpeth Vets
A competent Morpeth Vets team travelled to this Cup game against Sunderland without captain Simon Chandler, but with plenty of optimism – something that Morpeth teams are never short of !
After a lengthy warm-up that left several calling for oxygen the final 3 Morpeth team members arrived 5 minutes before the start (part of the game plan of course) and Morpeth set off with plenty of attractive hockey that saw Sunderland pinned in their own half for much of the opening 20 minutes.The last-minute game plan had started well.
The strong midfield of Tordoft, McPate, Shafiq and Emery began strongly and worked the ball well around the team, constantly pushing and providing service to the ever-probing and ever-energetic frontline attack of Evans and Van Zwanenberg. The Sunderland defence and keeper were tested on a number of occasions and after the 3rd Morpeth short corner in a ten minute spell of sustained pressure, a slick move between McPate and Shafiq produced what appeared to be the opening goal that Morpeth certainly deserved. Unfortunately celebrations were short-lived as “Dobbo”, Morpeth’s eagle-eyed umpire for the day, correctly ruled that the ball had been a few millimetres away from going outside the D before the killer pass and shot on goal was made! So still 0-0 and no further forward - thanks “Dobbo”.
Sunderland seemed to take the wake-up call from this and began to break into the Morpeth half more regularly, but the Morpeth defence of Gordon, Barber, Farrar and Cook were having none of it and coped competently with pretty much anything that came their way. Keeper Keith Slaughter was just beginning to think he may have been in for a relaxed Sunday afternoon snooze and had begun to paint his nails, when with half-time fast approaching Sunderland were awarded their first short corner of the match. What stunned Morpeth is that they kindly converted this into a goal. Morpeth responded well by pushing hard again and quickly went close with a neat run by Van Zwanenberg past the last defender, only for his shot to be saved by their quickly advancing keeper. Half-time and at 1-0 the game was still anybody’s.
The second half began with both sides seemingly to be more balanced, with several periods of end-to-end play and plenty of accurate passing and well-timed off the ball running. Morpeth continued to press and win a number of short corners but although they went close on a number of occasions they still couldn’t produce the goals needed. Sunderland then delivered killer blows from two short corners. Although different to the one in the first half, these two were worked with the same routine - slipped from the receiver to the right to avoid the advancing defender, for the supporting man to crash the ball into the Morpeth goal. Although Morpeth found themselves 3-0 down with 15 minutes still to play they refused to lay down and continued to push hard to the final whistle but to little avail.
Despite the loss perhaps a couple of noteworthy incidents to demonstrate Morpeth’s undying commitment to their absent Captain. Firstly there was “Exocet” Emery’s high velocity collision as he and one of the shining lights of the Sunderland midfield went for one of those “awfully nice” 50-50 balls that left both floored and dazed, but then resulted in Evans’ stirring encouragement for all to try and dispossess the same groggy and bloodied Sunderland midfielder of the ball minutes later – as he still ”wasn’t with it” !
The other, also involved Morpeth’s acting-captain for the day (Evans – who else?) who then polished off a fine cameo performance of working the ball into a lather by receiving a well aimed nudge to the ground and a tap on the head from his opponents stick for good measure as he fell forward. Unfortunately by attempting to make the umpire especially aware of all the details of this incident plus a number of other issues that we shan’t go into he was rewarded with a few minutes quality time on the touchline to reflect on the exact wisdom of some of his protestations. Fortunately neither of these incidents diluted the spirit of the game or the overall cameraderie and good humour of players of whom many have known and played with or against for many years. Afterwards Morpeth had to acknowledge that it had really been won and lost on the effectiveness of converting short corners into goals, and of course on Morpeths inabililty to really capitalise on their first half dominance.
To seal the day with a smile the Sunderland lads put on a superb 2 course meal in a fine venue (and posh white tablecloths!), supplied jugs of good beer for the gallant losers and plenty of excellent post match banter, so we all genuinely wished them well for the next round (until next year of course!!!)
