Game 50

An early morning call from Fat Lad as he was heading to Thorp Arch to assist on an academy game but didn't have the post code of his destination, having mislaid the correspondence about the game.

Once I'd given him directions I didn't expect to receive a further 4 calls receiving progress reports on his journey and his arrival! I made my own preparations and headed out for my Supply League line at the home of the team who won the league in the 2006-07 season. They haven't done too well recently and their top scorer from the last two seasons has travelled back to his former home around 5 miles away, leaving them short of attacking options.

I was picked up by Captain Currie and he drove us the 20 or so miles to the game. We were greeted by the assessor and the match referee who neither of us had worked with before. Once the pleasantries were complete we headed out for the warm up. I had some reservations as my tweak from two weeks ago had contributed to a severe bout of cramp on Wednesday night. Nevertheless, we managed the lap around with the shuttles without any discomfort.

The game kicked off and was a scrappy affair ruined by the wind blowing from one end of the field to the other. The away team scored their first goal just after the start of the second half when a defensive mix-up saw the lone attacker going around the goalkeeper and putting the ball into an empty goal. A caution near the end of the first half appeared to have dampened the enthusiasm of the home centre half (who usually has the role of team manager) and it was his mistake that lead to the goal.

The away team added a second goal a few minutes late and despite the consolation goal almost immediately after, the game was played out to a 2-1 away win, with just one more caution for the home team. I had a fantastic "wait and see" moment as the ball was played by an attacker right in front of me, towards his team mate standing 3 yards offside.

The defence howled at me to raise my flag, the player who played the ball stopped and the ball trickled past the offending player. He then put a foot out and pushed the ball further upfield , immediately changing status from being in an offside position to committing an offside offence and my arm shot up like it was on a spring. That was the end of things except to mention that the referee thought he'd lost his match fee but had popped it in a different trouser pocket from the rest of his cash!

A quick sausage sandwich, pint of orange squash and a mad dash back down the motorway to meet Fat Lad ensued. We were soon joined by Johnno and another colleague. Fat Lad regaled us with the tale of his early arrival at his afternoon game. He bought a newspaper and a Mars bar in a local shop to while away the time. As he was waiting for the teams to arrive he managed to dribble on to his pristine white shirt and spent the rest of the pre-match and post-match conversations trying to cover a chocolate coloured splodge with his tie!

He offered me a lift home so that Captain Currie could take the short route home and then when he dropped me off, he tried to drive off with my kit bag still in the back of his car. Fat Lad isn't getting any more sensible in his old age. Calories burned 1225, average hr 75%, max hr 89% - easy :-)