"Sports serve society by providing vivid examples of excellence" - George F. Will (1941 -)
Too true, George. One could have been forgiven for thinking that they had landed in a sort of football heaven yesterday afternoon, strolling around the Communications Park Stadium. Not only were there the examples of excellence on the field to which Mr Will was aluding to, but also one could point to the sublime cornish pasty I was eating, the swanky bar with its flatscreen tvs showing sky sports, and of course, the Indian Summer weather as such vivid examples of excellence.
However, the joy of the afternoon was not quite so apparent during the car journey there. I had managed to procure a companion, by the name of Mr Lee Wood to join me on my latest trip across the English football universe. The trip began promisingly, topics being discussed included exactly which group of supporters we should include ourselves in; was the great Debbie Hodgkins going to make an appearance; would Daventry Town have a bar named after a local hero like their Leamington counterparts? Pretty soon however, Lee, or Poosh as he is better known, was overcome by the heat and descended into a nap on the passenger seat. I also inexpliceably lost concentration and contrived to enter the M1 driving in the wrong direction.
We eventually arrived about 3 minutes late, and by the time we had negotiated the queue at the burger bar and actually acquired our lunch, it was almost halfway through the first half. Not that we missed much during that time. Both teams seemed evenly matched with Leamington just shading the possession but unable to make anything count. Daventry Town took advantage of their opponents inability to put in a decent cross, twice creating two chances on the counter attack, and converting both.
Perhaps this would be an ideal time to revert back to Mr Will's wise words at the beginning of the article; yes the weather was good, yes the cornish pasty filled a hole, but these examples of excellence surely pale into insignificance when you consider Leamington's sublime example of how not to defend. The first goal was a terrible one to concede, a low cross towards the near post, both defender and goalkeeper combined to make a complete hash of clearing the danger, and it was left to an onrushing Daventry player to tap in.
Though Leamington worked hard, they failed to deliver one decent cross into the box, too often struggling in the final third to create a decent chance, and it was the collapse of yet another attack that Daventry were able to capitalise on, within seconds finishing off at the other end with a tidy finish from about 10 yards out. All this before half time, and I couldn't help but feel slightly sorry for Leamington, who had had more than their lions share of possession. However, from 2-0 down it was always going to be a battle and so it proved, though not for the want of trying. I feel the Brakes deserve credit for their courageous fightback in the second half, and they certainly finished the game the stronger of the two sides. I was also quite pleased when they managed to gain some reward for their hard work, a penalty in the last minute of the game.
However, the tie belonged to Daventry, who provided a superb example of counter attacking football to win the match, and both me and Poosh agreed that the best team had won.
And so we have come to the end of yet another FA Cup weekend, so far Boldmere have graced themselves, Leamington have provided a short distraction, but now my attention turns to Daventry Town FC and I await the draw on Monday with a keen anticipation.....
No comments:
Post a Comment