VETS HAVE SIX APPEAL

MATCH REPORT: Tim Walters

Sevenoaks Men's 7s 3 - 6 BOEHC Vets

As the financial wizards in charge of the Greek economy might have said a few years ago, this was indeed the proverbial game of three halves. With support from the Club's non-playing 5s, the two Pauls, Whitney and Baker, slotted into a strong-looking midfield, alongside man-of-the-match Andy Cooke playing on the left for the first time in more than a year for the Vets XI. Tom Conway also made his debut in goal as the fourth different keeper to play for the team in four matches this season. There are probably very few nine-goal thrillers where the winners score the first and then the last five goals, and this indeed reflected the visitors' superiority in terms of both territory and possession. In between, however, Sevenoaks moved into a 3-1 lead and life was anything but rosy for the red shirts. There was a bit of misfortune about the deflected cross for the equaliser, as well as the for the second goal batted in from over head height after the ball spun skywards following a penalty corner. But then the visitors were almost biblically rent asunder as a hopeful ball into the D caused a parting of the Red Sea and was prodded past the keeper. A few minutes later a similar lapse left the home forward with a straightforward looking one-on-on. Had keeper Conway not got his angles right and forced the error to his right post, then a comeback of truly Lazarus-type proportions would have been required to repair the damage.

And yet early on it had looked like the Club were well on the way to three points, in a fixture that has yielded 9 goals and a victory in each of its last three incarnations, the last two ending with identical 6-3 scorelines. Graham Greene's smart finish looked to be a Churchillian end of the beginning, rather than the beginning of the end, but in stage one of Groundhog Day, it was once again Richard Cleall who turned the tide from a penalty-flick to make it 2-3 at the break.

In truth, the team had not played badly in the first half, and twice had shots blocked on the line. David Maltman performed admirably in defence and made a number of inspired stops in the first half before heading off in the general direction of Australia at half-time. He denies an imminent appearance on "I'm a Celebrity, get me out of here", but was more reticent about whether he had indeed packed his "budgie-smugglers" for the trip down under. At any event, the half-time break did the trick and the team managed a 4-0 shut-out in the second-half as a result. Despite the individual brilliance of Andy Cooke, it is really to the stalwart and magnificent triumvirate of Richard Cleall, Graham Greene and Ravi Wickramsuriya that the Club were truly indebted. The three of them quite simply wrested control of the game from the hosts and dominated possession of the ball to such an extent that intervention by the Monopolies Commission at one point seemed almost inevitable. Almost inevitably, it was the last of the three who thrashed the equaliser to the right of the keeper following a short corner to make it 3-3.

But still the floodgates would not open as the game threatened to turn into a constipated whale - ready to burst but with no-one quite able to work out how. Once again, in part two of Groundhog Day, salvation duly arrived from the bench, as the team's poacher extraordinaire showed once more that he is anything other than a Jonah figure. Whilst muttering a quiet "If you need something doing properly ..." under his breath, the wonderful Stephen Gilbert popped up yet again at the left-hand post for a trademark finish. His "minutes to goals" ratio is now making Lionel Messi look pale by comparison.

The last two goals arrived in relatively quick succession to give a slightly bloated look to the scoreline, as BOEHC had spent the majority of the game not even being in the lead. Aptly enough, both Ravi Wickramsuriya and Graham Greene ended up each bagging a brace to give the match an interesting kind of symmetry. First off, the former's deflected shot - like Sevenoaks' second - was picked up by air traffic control at Gatwick on its way into the net, whilst the latter had the pleasure of scoring both the first and last goals of the day.

So the Club Vets scored six goals and have thus far accumulated six league points in Division 3, precisely six more than they had at the corresponding stage of the season in 2014-15. Unfortunately the archives do not extend back far enough to record a past fixture where the team won from two goals down either, but this was certainly a game that may not have been pulled out of the fire twelve months ago. The perfect performance it most certainly was not, but for pure determination it scores a perfect 10 ... or 6.0 in ice-skating terms. Well umpired on a great pitch, played in an excellent spirit and all in all wonderful fare for Division 3, even if stiffer challenges lie ahead.

Team:
Conway (GK), Kinch, Maltman, Walters, Cleall, Wickramsuriya, Whitney, Dowse, McDonald, Green, Baker, Cooke, Gilbert(C), D'Cruz.

MOTM of the match:
Cooke