BUFC C vs Mountains Match Report

This week saw The Legends returning to Duffy’s Cathedral of Football armed with an exciting new formation and a keenness to triumph, this time over a Mountains team that had narrowly beaten us on the first day of the season.  Apart from anything else, it was a relief not to be playing Avoca again – if last Saturday felt like an afternoon spent in the disturbed wing of a psychiatric hospital, then this week was more like having a drink with colleagues after work.  Maybe not your mates, but at least they aren’t trying to break your legs.

We started fairly brightly, with energy and commitment, nobody demonstrating this more than a particular tall centre back who got stuck in early on and let the opposition know what they were in for – ‘Good afternoon, my name’s Della, I’ll be looking after you today…(crunch)…why are you on the floor ?’  However Mountains responded in kind and soon had us pegged back in midfield.  They then broke fast down their right, crossed into the box and put it past Beni to go 1 up.  We picked ourselves up, tried again, but sadly almost exactly the same move a few minutes later put them 2 up.  We responded with an attack that looked promising until a clearance put the ball straight into Della’s hands, who gathered it cleanly and probably would have headed for the try-line if the ref hadn’t pulled him back.  It seemed our new formation was taking some getting used to.  In truth we were fisting about a bit in the middle of the park, but thankfully we made it to half time without conceding further, which gave us the opportunity to re-group.

The second half saw Pierre back between the sticks and Beni starting on the right, although he clearly interpreted ‘right’ rather loosely and was often seen roaming on safari all over the final third.  We managed to build up some momentum and started to expose their defensive frailties.  The pressure came to a head when a glorious in-swinging corner from Payney sailed into the box and was soundly headed home by one of their defenders. 2-1, game on!  By this time we were starting to make sense of the new set-up, although the wingers did keep getting dragged back into defence.  Sadly though,  Mountains broke through again and got a third shortly after.  For once though our heads didn’t go down, and we stepped up a gear for the final 15.   At one point Beni, in an attacking position, was subjected to some pretty aggressive cuddling from their defender (without him even buying Beni dinner first) but the foul was given against us !  Ade’s response to this was to do his best to get booked but despite some spirited efforts (fortunately) he didn’t succeed.  The pressure was telling on their defence however, and we finally got a reward when their panicking defence sent it back to their keeper only for James to nick it off his toe and HAMMER it home from HALF A YARD out.  3-2 with five to go.

We surged forward again like an aggressive bunch of deck chairs.  A cross from the right found Timmy in the box but his header went over the bar – who knows, if he had some hair things might have been different.  Add to this Mountains twice clearing off the line and it was becoming clear it wasn’t going to be our day.  Sadly, despite our second half surge the game finished 3-2, but although we lost we can hold our heads up for a strong second half performance and our new formation shows promise.  Man of the match honours were shared between Payney and James, but the second half in particular was a great all-round team performance.  Good work guys.

PS why do I have a bruised nose ?

#TheLegendContinues