A long, long trip to North Yorkshire today made even longer by not driving (I am the world's worst passenger if I'm not distracted). This was the game with only one Assistant when I last spoke to the match referee and the weather conditions were worsening as we drove up the A1.
On arriving at the ground we found the other Assistant hadn't arrived and he got there about 50 minutes before kick off. In the changing room I found I hadn't packed a t-shirt for under my shirt (I'm sure there was one there last week when I packed my bag!), so the other Assistant lent me a t-shirt to warm up in and to keep the strong right to left wind from cutting me in half!
We got under way on time despite a much shortened warm up for the Third Team and the windy conditions were making life difficult for both teams. Last time I had been at this ground we had strong wind and driving rain. It was also the day when Fat Lad's car died on the A1 and he decided to scrap it rather than have it repaired.
The home team, in spite of their lowly league position took the game to the away team and had a goal disallowed for an offside offence in the early minutes. The away team were the ones who featured as the away team in Game 9 and were riding high at 5th in the league. The weather, as the commentators like to say, was a great leveller. With the wind their back the home side took the lead on 20 minutes and under pressure, the away centre half, a lad I have known for quite a few years collected a caution on the half hour mark. The home team added a second goal a few minutes later from a sublime chip over the goalkeeper.
A goal for the away team brought them back into the game but as they pressed for an equaliser, we reached half time. We were ambushed on the way back to the changing room by one of the home team's coaches who wanted to know why the early goal had been disallowed. After a 10 second explanation by the referee he was on his way.
In the second half the higher skill and fitness levels of the away team appeared to be turning the tide of the game their way. An early substitution saw them re-arrange to a more attacking formation but despite their best efforts they couldn't break down the home defence. A third home goal was almost immediately followed by an away response taking the score to 3-2. With a flurry of substitutions the game entered the final stages. The home team made 3-4 goal line clearances and in between times the away team centre forward collected a caution for a late and reckless challenge.
Despite a significant amount of added time from the referee, the home team held out to record their 3rd league win of the season. Calories burned 1328, average hr a lowly 70% reflecting the fact that the strong wind was blowing the ball into the other half of the field all day and a max hr of 89%. An easy day at the office!
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