Category: Match Reports 6s

The date was Valentines Day, and the sixes of Merton were in no mood to show the opposition any love.

After a long and eventful journey to the home of the Civil Service, it was surprising that all the players were on time.  More of a surprise was that Harry was there first!!

After the pitch that saw the demise of our cup run last week, it was great to see the sight of some green grass and no puddles.  At least we couldn’t blame the playing surface this week!

Anyway, with kick off fast approaching, Steve gave his team talk and made sure the lads were focused on the game and not on whether they were going to get a sexy valentines surprise from their Mrs when they got home!

The team lined up as follows:

Martin (Merton’s number 1!) in goal, a back four of Paul, Dazza, Steve (Gaffer) and Smithy (c). The midfield saw the return of the mighty Ram and Rob in the centre with Ryan and Harry on the wings, up top was new boy Nikhill and Nuno.  Subs were Jonny O and Ruben.

Anyway after losing the toss AGAIN! We were kicking off and from the start it seemed that the majority of the team had forgotten how to kick a ball!!

After a good 15 minutes of miskicks and misplaced passes and not being to be able to get out of our half, it was unsurprising that Civil Service took the lead, all be it under fortuitous circumstances.  A cross from there left caught out Martin and lobbed over him into the back of the net.  Was this the start of another Merton thumping!!

Well after roughly 25 minutes, it looked like the writing was on the wall as Civil Service doubled their lead!  Merton still having not started the game properly, failed to clear their lines and a weak shot was sent in, which was going wide and with Martin forgetting he could his hands, miscontrolled the ball and it managed to go in the back of the net!!  2 – 0 to Civil Service and things were not looking good!!!

Now a turning point for the Mighty Sixes, instead of the usual heads going down and Smithy throwing his toys out of the pram!  The team decided to roll their sleeves up and get stuck in and try to make a game of it!!  Now the misplaced passes were finding their targets and Merton were playing some decent stuff!!

Roughly with 10 minutes to play in the half, the ball was played into the Civil Service box and Ruben, on as a sub, controlled the ball and rolled the ball back to Ram who hit a screamer of a left footed shot into the corner of the net!!  His first goal of hopefully many for his new club and was fully deserved.  Maybe there was some hope for Merton to get something out of this game!!

As the half was approaching its conclusion, it was now Merton playing the better football.

It was literally the last kick of the half when Merton got there fully deserved equaliser!!

After a lovely scramble in the Civil Service box, which resulted in a Civil Service player handling the ball off the line, the ball was finally poked in by Nuno!!  Great celebrations from the Merton players followed and there was no time left in the half for Civil Service to reply!!  2-2 at half time and the come back was complete.

The ref said he would of given a penalty if we hadn’t scored which would have probably resulted in a red card for the civil service, it would have been a nice change for us to be playing against 10 man for once, not the other way round, but it wasn’t to be!!

The half time team talk was complete and with light refreshments we were ready to push on for the victory.

The second half started and again it was an even contest, with both teams having chances and Martin making some great saves.  He even managed to save a lobbed shot from his own defender, whereby Steve who got “his little toe” to a clearance and from a fully 30 yards, nearly had a disaster!!

Merton did have a chance whereby we broke and with Ryan playing in Smithy, who was under a bit pressure managed to scare the corner flag with an outside of the boot shot!!

As the half wore on the mighty Merton legs were tiring and the younger Civil Service team was taking more risks.

Eventually there pressure told and quick break meant there new striker had a one on one and slotted it in the corner, making it 3-2 to Civil Service!!

Again credit to the Mighty Merton 6’s, their heads never dropped and nearly found an equaliser, whereby Nuno skilfully took on there defence and had one on one chance cleared off the line!!  We all thought it was in but the ref could not see if it had crossed the line, our celebrations were short lived.  To be fair to the ref, he had a really good and fair game and there was no way he could see it from where he was.

I think that deep down we knew that was our chance and with the game ending Civil Service broke and Martin made a wonderful tackle outside his box, but unfortunately the ball bounced kindly to there player and he lobbed the ball into an empty net!  4 – 2 to civil service

The ref then blew the final whistle and Civil Service knew they had fought hard for victory.  4-2 was flattering scoreline as Merton never gave up and was always in the game, but once again another defeat!!

Lets hope we can take this performance forward into the next game as we proved to ourselves we are a good team when we get going!!!

MATCH RATINGS:

Martin 7 (never let his mistake get to him and made some great saves!)

Paul 8 (made numerous runs up the line and put his foot in for the cause)

Steve 7 (almost scored an OWN GOAL!, was solid throughout)

Dazza 7 (great performance until fatigue set it!!)

Smithy 7 (again im writing this!!! Had a disaster for 15 mins but then stepped up and had one his better games!)

Harry 6 (not one of his better performances, was playing in a new position so to be fair needed to get upto speed quickly! It takes a man to admit a bad performance and that’s what Harry said, so fair play to him!

Rob 7 (solid in the middle of midfield then centre back, brought a calm head to a panicking defence!)

Ram 8 (had a great game, and scored with a great finish – great lad to have in the team and has settled in nicely!)

Nikhill 7 (another new lad and settled into Merton life straight away, a nice bloke and had a good game.  Hopefully this result doesn’t put him off!!)

Nuno 7 (Good game from Nuno, caused there defence problems and scored so all round a good day!)

Ruben 7 (good game from coming off the bench, set up a goal and put a real shift in!)

Jonny O 6 (good game from Jonny, nearly scored with a 30 yarder and even showed some skill by completely mugging there midfielder!)

I think that’s it, see you all next week at Bank of England!!!!!!!

Oh there was one more thing…… you didn’t think I would forget… the MVP!!

This week, I think the whole team played well, but I think this player had his best game in a Merton shirt.  Step up Ryan!!!  Had a great game down the wing and pushed forward when he could and protected the great Smithy well!!  Put in numerous tackles and made some great passes, most of all never gave up!  Have a can of coke on me!!

It was a cold day and wet day for most of the UK on match day.  With most of the other games off in the surrounding area, a small ray of light in the Ham/Richmond area enabled the mighty Merton 6’s game against Old Blues 4 to be given the go ahead.

It was a freezing day and with most of the team nursing their usual hangovers, things were not looking good.

Once again a lack of communication between the Merton 6’s prior to the game meant that Harry thought we were at a Regatta, not a football match and decided to meet at the local boat club.  Spence was sent on his way to find him, even though we played at the same ground the week before!  With Beans (Adam Prior) also missing in action we were still waiting for the Old Blues to turn up at the other car park.  A trip back down the road to the clubhouse sorted it all out and once the team was all changed, we all piled in various vehicles and made our way to the ground.

Once at the ground, it was a hop over a barbed wire fence to be greeted with Spence and Rob providing the 5 minute quick stretch and warm up routine and we were ready to start.

Steve gave a rip roaring team talk and told the team not to take them lightly, as it looked like they had changed a few faces from our victory the week prior.  Steve kept faith with his trusted 3-5-2 formation, which we all know meant a 5-3-2 with the occasional holding midfielder dropping in to make a back 6!

Starting line as follows: Merton’s number 1, Martin in goal, back 3 of Spence, Gaffer and Smithy (c) with the two pacey wing backs of Harry and Baz.  Midfield was new player Ram (who is settling in nicely and giving numerous players top bants), and the Neville brothers (will let you all decide which one is who), up top was Rob and Nuno.  Impact subs were Ryan and our new and improved striker Jonny O.

So now to the game, it was the usual start to such an important game with both teams trying to work the other out with the odd bad touch and misplaced pass thrown in for good measure.  Then roughly 15 minutes into the game a small miracle occurred.

Smithy went up for a corner, as he normally does and with the same result as normal, got nowhere near a header.  The ball was then played back into the box and with utter confusion as to why there was still a centre half in the centre forward position, the Old Blues defence had a total mix up, Smithy then threw an almighty dummy with tits going one way and stomach the other, to throw the other defenders off their game, the bouncing ball landed at his feet and then with composure slotted the ball right in the far bottom corner and the miracle was complete – first goal for Merton and first competitive goal in 16 years!!

Unfortunately the rest of the half we were camped in a little bit and was restricted by the Old Blues in playing our normal free flowing game.  Shortly after the half hour mark the Old Blues deservedly equalised with a classic game of scramble football in our box and after a clearance off the line the ball came back in, hit the post and came back to Martin who couldn’t quite hold onto the ball and rebounded off him in the net.

Shortly after the unthinkable happened and the Old Blues scored again with such an unfortunate goal! It was an attempted clearance from Ram which jointly struck the foot of their attacker on the edge of our area and looped agonisingly over the head of Martin, which in fairness most keepers would have struggled to save.   Was Smithy’s goal going to be in vain!

Shortly before half time we had a goal disallowed, whereby Rob’s goal bound freekick was headed in by Frasier in an offside position.  Rob was furious as he thought it was going in and we never heard the end of it!!

The half time whistle blew and Merton left the field knowing there was still plenty to give as the we were poor in the first half, but still in the game.

Steve, Rob, Spence and Smithy all had there say at half time and with the team under new instructions, we set about repairing the damage.  A change at half time meant new boy Ram was off and Ryan was on up front, with Frasier moving back to midfield.

With the wind on our backs we started the second half and began to take control early on with a number of free kicks in dangerous positions which caused panic in the Old Blues box.

Then a moment of magic from another centre half!

With a tactical foul given away by Old Blues from a fully 37 yards out, they thought there was no danger, how wrong were they.  Up stepped Spence who hit a floaty lofted free kick into the top corner which the keeper got nowhere near!!  2-2! Sending the crowd of 4 Merton supporters (Beans, Ram, Jonny O and the gaffers favourite son!) into wild celebrations!!

From then on we were totally dominate, with every challenge won and pushing forward at will.

With roughly 25 mins to go the Mighty Merton pushed for the winner and a corner was awarded.  In it came but evaded everyone, expect the gaffer who was alert and headed the ball back in a dangerous position, then from nowhere (I think it was dive!) Nuno acrobatically diverted the ball into the net. 2-3 to Merton, it was unbelievable Geoff!!!!

Could it get any better, you bet it can!  An attempted counter attack by Old Blues was intercepted by Smithy, who brought the ball forward eating up the yards (quite literally!) and played a lovely pass into Matty Neville who turned and smashed it from a fully 30 plus yards over the keepers weak hands into the net.  This was truly different gravy from Merton, who for the first time in a while had the comfort of a two goal lead.

Matt’s reward for a superb goal, was to be subbed for the last 10 mins and Old Blues nemesis Jonny O came on and gave them the usual problems up front.

There was still time to absorb some late pressure from Old Blues with Smithy heading one off the line, some desperate tackles put in by Rob and Spense and a superb one on one save by “OH S*IT” Martin.  But we held on!

Final score 2-4 to Merton!!

After the game a good post beer was had by everyone which included new boy Ram getting right involved with the banter and Smithy failing to live up to a team hand shandy promise if we won!

Now for man of the match!!

I can honestly say no one had a bad game, but here a few stand outs:

Spence – always putting in a tackle and scored a great goal.

Frasier – running around like a headless chicken and caused problems for the Old Blues all game. His energy is what the team has missed this season.

Harry – enjoying his new wing back position and managed to spend more time on his feet than his arse.  Not his greatest game but deserves a mention for a consistent season!

And now for MVP – SMITHY!! (plus im writing it!!). Probably his best game in a Merton shirt! Was solid in weight as he was in defence.  Scored probably goal of the game and provided a vital assist to finish the game off!  Also clearance off the line!!  What a truly momentous performance!

Next week – our biggest game of the season against Old Finchlians in the cup!

Written by SMITHY!