MERTON FC 3-1 IBIS FC 4's - (05-01-2013)

Match Report

Squad 
Maksim Barinov
Liam Angell
Karl Bolton
Will Hainsworth
Andy 'Potter' Hicks
Nick 'Boidy' Boid
Barry 'Baz' Clarke
Ben Newman
Josh Campbell
Kendal Campbell
Callum Mayfield
Matt Naughton
Nhamo – ruled out (hamstring)
Mantas Zaveckas – didn’t show

Happy New Year and Happy 100th birthday Ibis fc as the club is 100 this year. Our first game of 2013 but it didn't exactly go to plan but we'll get onto that. The Friday before the game was a bit mental due to the fact that at about 11 am on Friday the game was called off due to a waterlogged pitch, but by 5pm Friday we were back on again. My team mate Karl Bolton was saying how deflating/depressing was it to have the game cancelled, but how uplifting was it when it was on again, which I think was the general feeling in all of us as we wanted to get out and play. But I digress, we ended up playing on a pitch at the back of a goals centre in Tolworth which wasn't the best pitch but it was something at least, we had Kendal start in goal who did well and was switched with Maksim at half time as he was running late due to the venue switch. 

The first half was a battle and was pretty even in terms of possession, we had a couple of scares from which Kendal made a couple of good saves, Boidy almost scored an o.g but it fortunately spun wide, I took an accidental head butt to the face at one point but I was ok to continue after spitting claret for a couple of minutes. We did end up taking the lead, a ball was played from the right and Josh was in on goal, got his shot off and was brought down, but as the rest of us were shouting for a penalty, Callum did what everyone should do, which is play to the whistle and as he came on from the left hand side and blasted the ball home we were glad the referee played the advantage because it helped us go 1-0 up a few minutes before half time. 

Just before this on a side note with about 18 minutes before half time i tried to play a pass and my left boot was splitting so i'd like to say thank you very much Nike, your boots split at the worst possible time, but thankfully Kendal had a spare pair of boots which were mouldies so on the slightly boggy pitch it was hard not to slip. But back to the action, the 1st half saw a lot of good link up play down our right hand side with Potter & Matt Naughton but we gave away a corner on our right hand side which Kendal got a hand too and we thought it had been dealt with but the next thing we saw was the ball getting blasted into the roof of the net as the ball wasn't cleared so much to our chagrin we went in 1-1 at half time with one of the last kicks of the half. But 2nd half began after a Boidy team talk and Merton who are around the top of the league started as they ended the first half with some very good passing play and their second goal came from an attack of ours that had broken down, ball came down our left, I stood up their no. 17 but didn't want to dive in, so he had time to turn and put in a cross to the far post which was nodded in for 2-1 to Merton. We kept battling and Maksim made a couple of great saves and at one point I dived in for a slide tackle leading with my right side which took their player down but he landed on my left foot which was facing up and it bent my toes back which was painful to say the least, I came off and was replaced by Kendal. 

So the guys pressed on as I tried to help the back line from the sidelines as I tried to keep warm and keep my foot from seizing up. We had a few chances during the 2nd half with Boidy having a free kick saved in spectacular fashion by the Merton keeper and we had Matt & Callum with a couple of shots struck wide and at one point we thought Josh was going to score as he was through with a bouncing ball which he headed but the keeper had come out early enough to grab the ball. We conceded an unlucky third goal when a ball was played through the middle and we all thought Maksim had it but he dropped it and their striker pounced and scored and that was the final nail in the coffin, 3-1 final score and we were left to recover and reflect on what might have been, individually I had a poor performance and it just wasn't my day, split boot and an injury but they rest of the guys put in a great effort, we did need to keep the ball better and get more support to Josh up top, but we move and groove on to our next game.

I'm Straight Shootin' LJA & that's my take on the game, UP THE IBIS!!!