........
The Classics arrived at the field and switched to their new dugouts on the opposite side of the field after someone had moved the pitch in the middle of the night. The home side were ahead in the seventh minute after Darly Lawrie had put Mike Deeley through. Deeley made no mistake as he rifled the ball high and into the top left corner of the net. Jerry Szakun was making his debut and he almost scored with his first touch but his header was saved. Deeley had another long range effort pushed away for a corner in the 19th minute before a corner was headed wide by Szakun. It should have been 2-0 in the 27th after a Deeley shot bounced off the keeper to Gordie Macklin who laid the ball to Jody Nelson who, in turn, put the ball home. However, the refree blew for off side, a decision which he later admitted was wrong. Two minutes later Britannia equalised with a peach of a goal - it came from about 30 yards out on the right wing and sailed high over Jason Clegg and into the top left corner. The Classics responded minutes later with a rasper of their own. This came from Brian Griffiths who was well outside the box. His shot cannoned off the crossbar and came back out almost to the edge of the box; with the reverberation, the crossbar sounded like a tuning fork for the next five minutes. Macklin was then found rolling on the floor like a piece of lino but when he eventually got up he realised that it was only his ego that was fractured.
Szakun was put through by Macklin for a break on the right in the 41st minute. He took the ball to the dead ball line and chipped a perfect centre over the keeper to the back post where Lawrie was waiting to pounce (or is that ponce?); however, Lawrie had the whole goalmouth to head towards but somehow he defied all the laws of gravity and headed the ball across the face of the goal so that the visiting keeper wouldn't have to move at all to pick up the ball. It was a very sporting gesture on Lawrie's behalf. The score remained 1-1 at the half. Deeley confirmed his ability to hit the net as he completed his hat trick with two second half goals. The first was the result of a goalmouth scramble and the second witnessed Deeley running round the goalkeeper in a one-on-one and tapping into the net. Britannia struck back with nine minutes remaining with another good goal - the result of a 20 yarder which sailed into the bottom right of the net. Special mention should be given to both keepers who did well to keep the scores down as there were goalworthy efforts at both ends. Clegg made a miraculous save in the second half when he laid his body on the line to save a rasping shot from extremely close in; he had just earlier tipped another goalbound effort over for a corner. Gene Crowley and Brian 'Engelbert' Griffiths were also stalwart in defence. Why Engelbert? Because... he was constantly singing "Please release me, let me go..." to his partner so that he could spend a lot of time singing the same to the opposing corner flags. He seemed to spend more time in their half than in his own. The last credit goes to Willie Dixon, joint coach of the day, who outcoached his own former coach! Well done boys for holding on for a good three pointer.
Stats
MWG: Mike Deeley
HT: Mike Deeley
Crap Award: Lorenzo Arcari (as Jody had done a runner)