Old Meads Slip Up In Third Round of Senior Cup

London Old Boys’ Senior Cup: Old Meadonians 2 Old Challoners 3

The tortuous paths to the final rounds of all cup competitions, professional or amateur, abound with banana skins and thus it was that Old Meadonians slipped up in the third round of the London Old Boys’ Senior Cup and become prey to canny Old Challoners from the division below at Riverside Lands on Saturday.

The visitors had obviously thought hard over their strategy, as even against an injury-riven hosts’ squad, they were content to put ten men behind the ball, invite Meads forward and rely on speedy counterattacks.

They were also happy to ride their luck which came in the form of Meads’ strangely diffident finishing and an apparently inherent lack of resolve at set pieces. In fact the senior team could have been out of trouble before the half hour if they’d taken the three or four chances offered them before half an hour had gone.

Instead it was the visitors who broke away and headed a good goal from a free kick thirty yards out. It was ironic that Meads’ reply five minutes later should come from a central defender, when mid-fielder Dwayne Rhone crossed from the left and Laurie Pointer headed in emphatically from close range.

At the restart Meads again laid siege to the visitors’ goal only to succumb to Challoners’ second corner of the game, on the hour, when the ball went unclaimed to bobble up and into the net through a tangle of legs. Still Meads attacked and on seventy minutes equalised as Ed Glover headed in fellow striker Leon Smith’s cross.

At this point the hosts’ efforts were given a body blow when the gentlemanly veteran Barry McGuinness was harshly adjudged to have been over vehement in questioning the referee and given a second yellow card for dissent. Still the hosts strove for the winner, bringing on two strikers, Dwayne Smith and veteran Ryman ace Kevin Quinn only to fall foul of the visitors’ last minute break away.

Meads’ keeper was deemed to have upended the attacker who got up and scored from the spot. Meads’ management was philosophical at the post match press briefing, in the knowledge that they are still involved in the A.F.A. senior cup, in striking distance of the league leaders and their walking wounded are doing well in training.

Team: Glenn, Hugh Jones, Pointer, Palmer, Eguae, W. Gerrish, Lovell, (Quinn), McGuinness, Rhone, (D. Smith), L.Smith, Glover.

January 9, 2008