Holding out for a Hero

Last week’s oddity was seeing three consecutive matches in which a goalkeeper failed to make it beyond half-time. In Tuesday night’s Isthmian Division One North fixture between Redbridge and Leiston (pronounced ‘Layston’) the visiting ‘keeper indicated to the bench that he was struggling with what may have been a muscle strain with five minutes to go in the first half.

He stuck it out until the break, a defender taking the goal kicks, and Leiston’s tall No.6 took over between the sticks for the second half. He made a string of good saves and ‘looked like a ‘keeper’ but was beaten twice in the last five minutes as Redbridge fought back to draw 2-2.

Maidstone United of the Isthmian Division One South scored nine at Corinthian in this season’s FA Cup Preliminary Round and racked up another nine at Banstead Athletic in Saturday’s First Round Qualifying tie before 162 fans at Merland Rise. They were 3-0 up in 19 minutes and 5-1 to the good by half-time, the fifth a spot-kick after the home ‘keeper had upended Stones’ No.9 and been sent off.

During the interval and the first 20 minutes or so of the second period we had torrential rain, the drenched players looking like they’d had buckets of water thrown over them. I didn’t have an umbrella with me (as usual) but was sitting in the dry at the back of the stand. I noticed that the little red seats had the old Wembley logo on them, so they’d presumably come from the old stadium.

So in some sense we’d already ‘got to Wembley’, even though The Semis were ten rounds away.

The mystery of this match was that Banstead managed to keep the score down to 9-1. The Stones had 15 minutes at the end to get into double figures but several efforts were either saved by the replacement ‘keeper (a proper one from the subs bench) or were deflected inches wide.

The superfan was back in the old routine on Sunday. For the first time since the first week in April I had breakfast in the Baker Street café with the Belarusian lovelies before taking in a 10.30 kick-off in nearby Regent’s Park. I had six matches to choose from on a blindingly sunny morning and went for the one that started first – Rigford Seahawks v Heroes of Waterloo.

Seahawks’ goalie, who thought the opposition were called ‘Warriors of Waterloo’, had his right thigh strapped and seemed to be experiencing discomfort from the kick-off. A shot from distance went over his head, hit the underside of the bar, hit him in the back and ended up in the net. He lasted for about half-an-hour, barely able to move, before handing his jersey to an outfield player.

You always get value for money watching KIKK United Ladies, even though they’ve never charged admission. I believe they are now ‘multi-national’ rather than ‘Swedish’ and certainly some of their big names from last season were missing from yesterday afternoon’s London & South East Regional League Division One fixture at Carshalton Athletic – Sak, Susanne, Alma and Fran.

They were 3-1 down at half-time, conceding the third in the last few seconds, and to be honest at that point a KIKK victory looked highly improbable. But they were a different side after the break –quicker to the ball, more accurate in their passing and finally playing with a measure of belief. They won 4-3 and a lot of the credit must go to their astute coach Chris Brayford.