A splendid 6 versus 6 tonight in which Anne Robinson would have been scratching her head for a weakest link such was the consistency of the quality on display.
With an official photographer on hand - watch out for the pics soon on Facebook - everyone was anxious to look their best.
Graeme had the vision of Ces Fabregas, Martin had the enforcer qualities of Mascherano, Joel had the cheeky skills and tasty shot of Jimmy Bullard, Yusuf had the inspired positional sense of Kenny Dalglish, Tom had the dependable presence of Bobby Moore, Andrew had the flair and drive of Freddie Lungberg, Luke had the incisiveness of Maradona, Dwayne had the authority and domination of Gerry Francis, Merrick had the energy and commitment of Patrick Viera, Jason had the precision and quality passing of Kaka, whilst Ben was on fire and arguably was the real difference between the two teams and deserves comparison with the best qualities of such luminaries as Torres, Gerrard, Terry McDermott, Emlyn Hughes, and Graeme Souness (all representatives of the greatest Premiership side).
Whilst Jason takes home the Southern Hemisphere man of the match and our best wishes as he returns to Australia, the UK man of the match this week, confirmed by the Prozone stats is Ben, who took a 7-1 lead and then switched allegiance to help the stragglers come out on top 8-7.
Thursday, 29 January 2009
Thursday, 22 January 2009
match report 22 January 2009
An interesting, if ultimately one-sided contest tonight.
It was 7v7, and after 20 minutes there was all to play for with the score at 7-5 to the coloured tops.
Post mortems are still being energetically pursued round the streets of Camden in an effort to explain how the white tops caved so dramatically and the coloured tops eased ahead so effortlessly.
The final score is a mere academic emblem of the domination of the coloured tops and your match analyst lost count as the goals kept flying in but believes it ended up at 14-8.
The white tops were not short of skill: Andrew, Yusuf, Joel and Juan all had their moments with creative dribbles, and scorching runs; whilst nobody reads a game quite like Graeme, who was a steadying influence throughout, and Martin proved effective in defence and attack with strong tackles and quality balls.
But it wasn't enough. The coloured tops were sheer class. Luke valiantly played in spite of an injury and worked selflessly for his side, the Pritchard brothers maintained a fine balance between effective defensive cover and quality forward movement, Jason, all the way from Australia, showed the technique of Harry Kewell coupled with the eye for goal of Mark Viduka and the positional sense of Tim Cahill, whilst newcomer Tom had an eager eye for goal and a confidence befitting a true winner. All these factors, coupled with the highly rated Dwayne and Merrick who totally dominated the park with their thrusting central runs, attacking of open spaces and clever one-twos. It was reminiscent of Gerrard and Torres at their best.
With so many great performances, it is an unenviable task to decide on a man-of-the-match and so we retired to the pub and asked an objective observer from South Shields his view, and he had no hesitation in choosing Merrick - and we have to say we agree.
Great game everyone.
It was 7v7, and after 20 minutes there was all to play for with the score at 7-5 to the coloured tops.
Post mortems are still being energetically pursued round the streets of Camden in an effort to explain how the white tops caved so dramatically and the coloured tops eased ahead so effortlessly.
The final score is a mere academic emblem of the domination of the coloured tops and your match analyst lost count as the goals kept flying in but believes it ended up at 14-8.
The white tops were not short of skill: Andrew, Yusuf, Joel and Juan all had their moments with creative dribbles, and scorching runs; whilst nobody reads a game quite like Graeme, who was a steadying influence throughout, and Martin proved effective in defence and attack with strong tackles and quality balls.
But it wasn't enough. The coloured tops were sheer class. Luke valiantly played in spite of an injury and worked selflessly for his side, the Pritchard brothers maintained a fine balance between effective defensive cover and quality forward movement, Jason, all the way from Australia, showed the technique of Harry Kewell coupled with the eye for goal of Mark Viduka and the positional sense of Tim Cahill, whilst newcomer Tom had an eager eye for goal and a confidence befitting a true winner. All these factors, coupled with the highly rated Dwayne and Merrick who totally dominated the park with their thrusting central runs, attacking of open spaces and clever one-twos. It was reminiscent of Gerrard and Torres at their best.
With so many great performances, it is an unenviable task to decide on a man-of-the-match and so we retired to the pub and asked an objective observer from South Shields his view, and he had no hesitation in choosing Merrick - and we have to say we agree.
Great game everyone.
Thursday, 15 January 2009
It was a hard fought contest and in spite of originally having superior numbers (7v6), the white shirts always knew it was going to be a struggle when a player of Roy's quality had to leave early and so it proved with the gallant white-shirts losing their lead to eventually succumb 12-9.
There were so many quality performances on display it is invidious to highlight any. Nevertheless the public must get a flavour of the skills on display ...
Luke, Tom, and Paul all battled bravely against injuries and are to be commended - their spirit and gusto infiltrated the rest of the team and as a result newcomer Chris and old hand Dwayne sparkled.
The darker shirts were oozing quality and it was a wonder that Mark Hughes's men had passed up the opportunity to see the talent on display.
Yusuf and Andrew impressed with how well they found space and linked up. Andrew was also responsible for some Van Persie-esque finishing. Meanwhile Tim made incisive runs striking at the heart of the opposition and Graeme made piercing passes, stroking the ball around with the assuredness of Didi Hamann.
Newcomer David showed no sign of newbie nerves, linked up impressively and was a millimetre from scoring on his debut, but man of the match (and it was very close call) goes to Merrick, who as well as scoring a hatful of goals also battled back to help keep the tally down at the other end.
There were so many quality performances on display it is invidious to highlight any. Nevertheless the public must get a flavour of the skills on display ...
Luke, Tom, and Paul all battled bravely against injuries and are to be commended - their spirit and gusto infiltrated the rest of the team and as a result newcomer Chris and old hand Dwayne sparkled.
The darker shirts were oozing quality and it was a wonder that Mark Hughes's men had passed up the opportunity to see the talent on display.
Yusuf and Andrew impressed with how well they found space and linked up. Andrew was also responsible for some Van Persie-esque finishing. Meanwhile Tim made incisive runs striking at the heart of the opposition and Graeme made piercing passes, stroking the ball around with the assuredness of Didi Hamann.
Newcomer David showed no sign of newbie nerves, linked up impressively and was a millimetre from scoring on his debut, but man of the match (and it was very close call) goes to Merrick, who as well as scoring a hatful of goals also battled back to help keep the tally down at the other end.
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