London Old Boys Senior Cup

Old Meadonians 4 John Fisher Old Boys 0

It was a street-wise but not unskilful John Fisher Old Boys side that visited Riverside Lands on Saturday to contest a quarter final of the London Old Boys Senior Cup but, although their crafty subversion of the laws sometimes outsmarted the otherwise good referee, it failed to register with Meads who just got on with it, calmly excluded the visitors from the game and finally sent them packing with a ringing clip round the ears.

Fisher, from two divisions below, have only played six league games this season, denoting a hearty record in all cups and the fact that they are on the crest of a wave, but this time the tide was against them as they failed to come anyway where near to denting their hosts’ ability to control the game, with this being the nearest Meads have come to cruise control this season.

Youngster of the team, Ryan Bright, weighing in at just over ten stone and, in the words of joint coach Rory Vermeulen, ‘A beautiful footballer’, was promised a start by Meads’ management after languishing on the bench last week but probably hadn’t realised that he would be up the sharp end, in tandem with Ed Glover and facing a couple of fifteen stone six foot markers, but he was still a painful thorn in all parts of the visiting defence from start to finish. In fact Meads’ first came after twenty minutes when left-back Kevin Quinn released him on the left and Jack Costello beat all-comers to his perfectly timed angled cross.

Half-time instructions were to up the ante and not let Fisher back into the game and, after a mini scare when a speculative shot from thirty yards clipped the top of Meads’ bar, the hosts were once more in charge. Costello also got the assist for Meads’ second on the hour when his driven corner was headed in thunderously by centre-back Ali McCombe. Then, ten minutes later, it was a double assist with Costello’s corner flicked on by McCombe for Quinn to volley in at the far post.

With five minutes to go Ryan Bright got his reward from the spot after being tripped during a mazy run through traffic in the area and then, in a feeding frenzy finish, a series of snatched shots prevented slaughter before the visitors were saved by the bell. Jack Costello and Ali McCombe were named joint MoM.

February 26, 2013