We were late getting to the Manor as Bread had to do his hair, this was made more annoying due to the large queue at the now world famous snap cabin, and I wasn’t able to partake in my weekly lard cob, reasonably priced at £1.30. As we headed into the changing room, the players were already in conversation and Manq was about to read the team news out.
The Line up was as follows…
Lormor, Geary, James, Quiche, Mellors, Manq, Jay, Danny, Kirk, Gav Short, Gallagher.
Subs were: Bread, Scott, Leigh and Daz.
We were made to wait for kick off as the opposition were late getting out of bed. Even though the time was ticking on past 10 past 11, a couple of visiting players still thought they had time to stand and watch the match on the next pitch to us.
The Bridge were to make an unbelievable start to the game, Gav Short took a throw in on the ledt hand side, Gallagher chested down for Kirk, whose shot was well paried, but luckily Gallagher was following up to poke the ball home for a 1-0 lead in the very first minute. It was very nearly 2-0 straight after, as a long ball into the area, was dropped by the keeper who just about recovered to stop Gallagher scoring again. The Bridge, were quite clearly lifted by the start, and poured forward in the search of more goals. Kirk who was playing out of position on the left hand side of midfield, cut in before passing to Jay, but his shot was well saved. However, on 10 minutes, a long kick from Lormor caught the visiting defence playing with themselves, and Gav followed in to challenge with the keeper, he brilliantly outjumped him, won the ball and slammed the ball into the unguarded net to send the home crowd of 5 into ectasy. The worst offside decision in the history of football couldn’t dampen the spirits soon after the second goal, the fact that Gav Short was still in his own penalty area at the time of flagging was not lost on the visiting linesman.
One of the best goals in the Bridge Tavern was not long in coming after all the abuse had been handed out to the Lino, a free kick into the visiting area, found it’s way out to Jay, and fully 40 yards out from goal, the midfield maestro stood and simply lobbed the ball back into the roof of the net, leaving the keeper to wave at his family in the stands as the ball sailed over his head and leave the Bridge in dreamland at 3-0 up.
The 3-0 scoreline was obviously going to the players heads, as James started going up for free kicks and trying get on the scoreline, he nearly scored, but then again he nearly didn’t. Lormor at the other end was first tested, and came through with flying colours, superbly clearing up around the 30 yard with some silky skills, only problem is, is that he’s the keeper!
He showed his keeper skills though soon after with a fine tip over to force a corner, following a dangerous cross into the box.
The Bridge, probably alarmed by this sudden patch of form from the away side, hit back in the best way possible, cracking defending from Ashley led the ball to Manq, who found himself in on goal on the left hand side, his shot was saved, but the rebound found it’s way to Jay who put the ball into the net.
The visitors were now totally shell shocked, and were being passed off the park at times, and the scoring for the half was not over, Jay who was running the game, set up Danny on the edge of the area, who turned and promptly volleyed into the roof of the net to make it an incredible 5-0 scoreline at half time. The standing ovation they received as the came off was thoroughly deserved and I’ve never seen them play any better than that.
The half time team was probably the easiest Manq has done as manager, the team were performing brilliantly.
Luckily the second half wasn’t as exciting as the 1st, I say luckily because now the game was tight and more even, there was no chance of the visitors coming back into it. Lormor pulled a long range effort out of the air, whilst Quiche nearly scored an own goal with a back header, although he did assure us he knew what he was doing. The Bridge tried the very controversial corner kick routine, the referee though was having none of it and gave a free kick to the visitors.
Gav Short needed a taxi mid way through the half, as he beat the offside trap before lobbing the keeper and putting his effort wide.
Manq came off for Daz on 70 minutes. Geary came of for Scott on 75 minutes, whilst Leigh came on for Kirk on 76 minutes.
Jay added to his collection of brilliant goals on 78 minutes, when he let fly from 25 yards, and the ball flew into the roof of the net to cheer up the second half.
He very nearly did it again, but the keeper who had come on a sub late on, saved well down to his right. The only other drama of the game came very late on, as Gallagher was fouled in the area, and wanting to get his name in the Chad, up stepped keeper Lormor to slam home the resulting penalty.
And so a splendid 7-0 win, quite unbelievable after King William had started to romp away with the league earlier in the season, each and every player was quite simply outstanding.
As expected Jay was named man of the match