Match Report
Match Report - 05 Nov 2011, Old Modernians Football Club 4ths drew with Beeston OB Reserves
Mods 4th team v Beeston - 05/11/2011
The players received a massive boost before the game when it was announced that 4th team supremo Tony Mullin was on an intensive anger management course for the weekend (the first of a scheduled 52).
Beeston were going to be a tough challenge – they have had an excellent start to the season, including a 4-0 win in the reverse fixture early in the season. The 4th team have also put a very good recent run together, after the early weeks when yet another new team was being moulded by Tony.
In brief – Mods were the better side in the first half, played most of the football, had the most dangerous player in Matt Flint, yet conceded a goal from a badly defended free-kick and were 1-0 down at half time. It was tense, which was only to be expected, and scrappy at times, but the general quality of football was very good for a Div 4 game. The 2nd half continued in much the same vein as the first, with Mods having more possession, but Beeston were very lively up front and looked dangerous on the break. They went 2-0 up after about an hour with a well-taken goal, and given their defensive strength, age and weight looked likely to take all 3 points. The great thing about our response was that we didn’t panic and continued to get the ball down and play. It helped that we had Alex Pouncett on the bench, and he came on to replace Josh Williams with about 25 to go. We were now dominating Beeston and the ref helped us on that front by sending-off their little winger (or is that whinger?) for a 2nd bookable offence (harsh to say the least but nobody on our side argued because he wasn’t a very nice man). Not long after, Andy Thorpe finished coolly after being put clear to get us to 1-2, and with about 3 minutes left a scramble from a corner fell to Si Oliver who finished well (like he does). Mods very nearly won it with the last kick of the game when after a great move down the left, Josh Smith met a cross on the half-volley and hit the bar. That would probably been cruel on Beeston if it had gone in. A draw was probably a fair result in what was a very good game (but they obviously blamed the ref!!).
MoM: Matt Flint
Old Modernians Football Club 4ths 2 - 2 Beeston OB Reserves