Jesmond are an attractive footballing side, and I am referring to the way they play, as opposed to the way they look! At their ground earlier on in the season, they deservedly took the lead and only a stunner of a free kick from Richie gave us a foothold in the game, which ended up a disappointing 1 – 1. Surely, replete in our new kit and on a fine morning, we would show our superiority and condemn Jesmond to a long journey home licking their proverbial wounds. Surely??

No! Well, it certainly looked unlikely in the first half, when we were disjointed, out of sorts and started moaning at one another. Jesmond gleefully took advantage and once again deserved to go into the lead after indifferent defending. We looked stunned, turned our frustrations upon ourselves, and Jesmond grabbed a second goal after a couple of unfortunate and unintentional flicks by two of our defenders put their number 9 clear to grab the second of his three goals on the day. And then, once again, we had to thank Andy for making two unbelievable saves to prevent Jesmond finishing off the game as a contest in the first half.

There’s an old adage in fottball, which goes that 2 – 0 is a dangerous lead. Of course, it isn’t, if you make it 3 – 0, but if you concede, then the whole impetus is taken away from you and tension creeps into your play. And so it transpired, and deja-vu was evident, when Richie had the chance, from another free kick as in the first game, this time from 25 yards to pull one back for us. He superbly swerved the ball into the top right hand corner of the net and we suddenly looked like a side that both wanted to play football and wanted to win.

We were still 1 – 2 down at half time and clearly the next goal was going to be pivotal. Rog said that we would score it and go onto win 4 – 2. Predictions are not Rog’s strong suit, because we were 4 -2 up within fifteen minutes of the re-start, thanks to a Richie penalty, a thunderbolt from Jamie from a full 0.2 cm and then Jamie, now playing with confidence and authority, headed his second into the corner of the net. Jesmond were shell-shocked and we were actually starting to play football. Everyone wanted the ball and we were looking to pass and go. Jamie completed his hat-trick with a towering header to put us into a 5 – 2 lead, a lead we looked like adding to with ease. Regrettably, we then switched off and allowed Jesmond a consolation third goal, which meant that both team’s centre forwards came away with a hat-trick on the day. But the game wasn’t finished: to add to Jesmond’s, and their goalkeeper’s, misery, a bobbling back pass to the Jesmond keeper brought about the “missing foot” syndrome made famous by Danny Baker in his hilarious “Own Goals and Gaffes” videos (see Jamie for copies), and Jesmond were 6 -3 down and well beyond redemption.

This was King’s version of “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”; all three were on display throughout the game: we were horribly bad at times and we were very good at others, and when we started to implode and turn on each other, we were downright ugly. Fortunately, the “good” just about outweighed the other two conditions and we remain in top spot, unbeaten in the league.

What Have We Learnt:

Life’s so simple when you’re going downhill with the wind behind you; it’s when you find yourself with the opposite conditions, which determines what you’re made of.
Everyone makes mistakes: it’s called being human! Accept them from yourself and each other and move on.
Encouragement and praise lifts people; criticism deflates them.
How often have I said this? We are a good team when we pass the ball and keep it simple.
We do not mark opposition players tightly enough.
We too often watch the game and switch off.
When we play as a team, we are very difficult to beat.

Quote of the Week:

“Snowflakes are one of nature’s most fragile things, but just look at what they can do when they stick together.” (Vesta Kelly)