Football Result: Old Meadonians 1 Parkfield 2

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Football Result: Old Meadonians 1 Parkfield 2

Below par performance by Old Meadonians lets success slip away

Amateur Football Combination Premier Division

Old Meadonians 1 Parkfield 2

The phrase ‘on paper’ is often used to ease disappointment when results fail to come up to pre-match expectancy. Thus it was that Old Meadonians, having failed to bridge the gap between aspiration and achievement, let slip their outside chance of taking the A.F.C. premiership for a second year running with an under average performance at Riverside Lands on Saturday.

Visitors, Parkfield, having had a Jekyll and Hyde season so far, winning a third of their league games and losing the remainder, chose to thwart their hosts, forgetting their place, just above the relegation zone, to show Meads that matches weren’t played on paper and, moreover, they knew where the goal was.

The early exit of top scorer, striker Craig Jones, with a strained hamstring underlined Meads’ big problem this season, their lack of firepower up front, as throughout the fair sprinkling of half chances they created failed to find the net, while at the other end defensive dominance meant that even if opportunities might be sparse, they would be eagerly snapped up. Parkfield’s first came just before half time when a speculative dip from twenty-five yards threaded its way through a built up area past an unsighted Paul Robinson’s dive and into the corner of the net.

Ten minutes after the restart master craftsman Jack Costello cut in from the right and from the edge of the area carefully placed a left foot curler into the far corner to bring Meads level. The visitors’ second with twenty minutes to go was more emphatic being a beautiful strike from twenty yards which gave Robinson no chance.

The post match briefing given by Meads’ joint coaches, Paul Rumley and Rory Vermeulen, seemed to be more revealing than intended. From the outset of the season their original priority had been to rebuild the all conquering squad of the ‘noughties’ which in ten years had netted fifteen trophies. The team was in the London Old Boys cup final but any silverware won this season would be a bonus and so although there was still a chance that this target might be exceeded they still felt a slight element of disappointment at the drop in the likelihood of retaining the championship.

Team: Robinson, Pointer, Thompson, Palmer, Costello, N. Jones, Shea, (Graham), Quinn, (Phillips), Glover, Eguae, C. Jones, (Mantel).

March 22, 2012