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Cup Game 1 – Highway vs FCB The Boys travelled up to Phipps Park last night for our 19h00 kick-off against a much improved, very physical Highway team under the street lights of Winston Park (The street lights were actually brighter, in fact we got more light from the red signal light on top of the cell phone towers beside the grounds). Nevertheless, in the spirit of our great club, we agreed to play on...and that we did. The manager making some telling adjustments to our strike force that paid dividends early on, taking a 2-0 lead early on in the fixture courtesy of 2 brilliantly contrived strikes, first by Gilly and then Noss. This is how the score-line remained until the final 10 minutes of the match. Again the manager stepped in (both figuratively & literally) as he brought himself on whilst the team we defending a kick on the edge of our penalty area. What transpired from this set piece? A goal...2-1. The call was sent out and the Boys responded with another masterpiece courtesy of Chris Davies (the MOTM), however the rubber was kept alive by Timmy “The Cat”, who showed much improvement and proof that he was over his bout of flu, by tossing in the final goal from a late corner...FCB will take a 3-2 advantage back to Fairfield Park, which I’m sure should be enough to see us through to the next round (All agreed). I must mention the hospitality of the Highway lads, they offered our entire span a boerewors roll which we of course turned down after casting our minds back to the 1995 RWC, when the mighty All Blacks were poisoned in the week leading up to the final. Needless to say we will be returning the compliment when they visit Fortress Fairfield next week (Burnsie, diarise to bring a few kilos of your Warthog wors next week?) Some more good news for the squad was the opening up of the transfer window mid-season, where we dug deep and snapped up the evergreen Dougie Fradd for a song (2 single Bells, ice and waters). So if the silverware doesn’t arrive this season – we’ll nevertheless have some handy tips and may evening consider opening our own betting shop with the wealth of industry knowledge in our ranks...
2. Brent De Villiers 3. Steven Burns 4. Ant King 5. Warren Benson (Chomp) 6. Noel Parsonage 7. Craig Harper (Homer) 8. Mike Slogrove (Red) 9. RedBulls 10. Gary Nossiter 11. Chris Davies (MOTM) 12. Gilly Millard 13. Barry Ebs (El-Capitan)
Golden Boot (after 9 games) 1st Ebs – 4 goals & Gilly – 4 goals Other scores – Dumpy Bend 0 Ashley 0 Hillary 2 Blues 0
Cup Game 1 –FCB vs Highway (1st Leg – FCB 3-2 up) Last night was the night of the underdog, and by the time we strode onto the pitch for our cup tie news filtered through of 2 major upsets, as the old guys Dumpy Bend bundled out fancied Ashley on away goals and Fairfield came from behind to turn a 3 goal deficit on its head only to be thwarted by a goal in the last 5 minutes. Needless to say the dressing room was a tense place. We came out firing and went a goal up thanks to a well struck, dipping and swerving Godfrey Wheeler freekick, but in typical fashion the lads from up country replied with a classic strike of their own. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy – this Highway team wouldn’t just lie down. A few masterful changes were made to the team and these paid dividends almost immediately, when a training ground manoeuvre seemed to work handsomely – with Chrissie D setting up Redbulls to tap home from the edge of the penalty area – good night nurse!!! It stayed 2-1 for the rest of the game, with FCB going through to the semi-finals – 5-3 on aggregate. MOTM Ant King making sure it stayed that way – putting in some telling tackles even though carrying an injury...the fairytale is still alive!
2. Brent De Villiers 3. Steven Burns 4. Ant King (MOTM) 5. Warren Benson (Chomp) 6. Ali Baird 7. Ali Mather 8. Mike Slogrove (Red) 9. RedBulls 10. Godfrey Wheeler 11. Chris Davies 12. Gilly Millard 13. Barry Ebs (El-Capitan) 14. Peter Vink (Emergency Acceptor – not required)
Golden Boot (after 10 games) Joint 1st Ebs – 4 goals & Gilly – 4 goals
Blues 0 Hillary 2 - Hillary through to meet FCB Fairfield 3 F Hills 1 – F Hills 4-3 on aggregate
Game 3 – Hillary vs FCB (1st Leg – Semi Final) Ravaged by injury from our previous league assignment, FCB managed to scrape together 12 of our finest troops to do battle with Hillary, and battle we did! It took a whole 15 minutes for us to get our shape, lose our cool, throw the first punch (Ketch threw and half-missed – luckily for Danny Els) and get our first “yellow rose” (obviously Ketchie too!). This sequence of events all unraveled in the space of 15 mad seconds, and died down to a whimper a few seconds later, but the passion was still alive and the game was on…Unfortunately it didn’t take long for us to receive our first injury either, with Ali B limping off. Fortunately we had a wealth of experience on the bench in Vinkie, who used his full bag of chirps and his poking stick from the minute he arrived…After some end to end stuff, we went into the sheds at half time all square, although if it were a boxing match (which it had been up to then anyway!), we would’ve been ahead on points, by virtue of Ketchie’s haymaker and a few Chris Davies tackles (another “yellow rose”). The start of the second half saw the lads come out fired up, as we out-muscled (specially Chomp & Burnsie) our opponents in all aspects of the game. And about 5 minutes in, we managed to break the deadlock with a searching 40 yarder from Vinkie’s educated left peg finding Wheels, who outstripped the defence and calmly slotted…1-0 and a precious away goal…It stayed this way, and Homer ensured it did with a fine goalkeeping display in the nets securing him the MOTM award. Final score FCB 1 Hillary 0... We now go into the 2nd leg holding all the aces, and a bunch of “yellow roses” too (we won that battle 5 - 0), but that is just a measure of the pride and passion shown on the pitch (and in the Black Door afterwards…), and we’re only a game and a half away from cup glory…
2. Brent De Villiers 3. Steven Burns (Burnsie) 4. Warren Benson (Chomp) 5. Garon Kenchenton (Ketch) 6. Alistair Baird 7. Mike Slogrove (Red) 8. Michael Bulley (RedBulls) 9. Chris Davies (El-Capitan) 10. Peter Vink (Vinkie) 11. Barry Ebing (Ebs) 12. Godfrey Wheeler (Wheels)
Golden Boot (after 13 games) 1st Ebs – 5 goals,Joint 2nd Gilly, Godfrey & Redbulls – 4 goals
Game 4 –FCB vs Hillary THE FAIRY TALE HAS ENDED! But credit to the lads, specially those who managed to finish the game. We started on the back foot, when Evin Windelburg closed his eyes (possibly his first ever career goal?) and blasted through the crowd and past a hapless Homer, the precious away goal was wiped out after 2 minutes of play. But the lads knuckled down and could have drawn level a few times in the first half. The second half was a different story as FCB players dropped like flies, first Gilly Mills (groin), then Doug Fradd (lung), but we held on until the end with quite a few wounded soldiers still on the pitch. EXTRA TIME! And again it looked as though both teams were just trying to hang on, with few chances being created at both ends. And again FCB lost a few more troops – first Ant King (knee) and then Chomp (heart palpitations & sugar levels), at one stage it looked like a fierce battle between bitter rivals Flame Lily & TAFTA. But the lads hung in, especially Chris Davies who went down 14 times in the match only to be brought back around by the medics. PENALTIES!! First up Chris Davies – 1-0 FCB, then Homer saved from Mark Birkholtz – 1-0, then Gary Noss skied his shot, high and wide – 1-0, Hillary scored there next kick – 1-1, then Redbulls slotted top corner, no chance – 2-1, Hillary scored again – 2-2, Barry Ebs in off the underside of the bar, no chance – 3-2, Hillary drew level again – 3-3, then Wheels put his kick just wide grazing the post and Craig Smith stepped up for Hillary to clinch the tie – 4-3. The dream had been shattered....
2. Craig Harper (Homer ) (MOTM) 3. Noel Parsonage 4. Steven Burns (Burnsie) 5. Alistair Baird 6. Warren Benson (Chomp) 7. Ant King 8. Michael Bulley (RedBulls) 9. Chris Davies (El-Capitan) 10. Gary Nossiter (Noss) 11. Barry Ebing (Ebs) 12. Mike Slogrove (Red) 13. Doug Fradd 14. Godfrey Wheeler (Wheels) 15. Lyndon Millard (Gilly)
Golden Boot (after 16 games) 1st Ebs – 7 goals, 2nd Godfrey – 5 goals
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