Amateur Football Combination Premier Division

Old Meadonians 1 (C Jones pen) Bealonians 0

Old Meadonians completed their ‘curate’s egg’ of a season by tidying up another loose end with a marginally justified win over third placed Bealonians at Riverside lands on Saturday, the goal coming from a Craig Jones penalty after Ryan Bright had been bundled over in the area on twenty minutes.

Meads have finished sixth in the league, having won the A.F.A. Middlesex & Essex Senior Cup to maintain joint coaches Paul Rumley and Rory Vermeulen’s unimpeachable record of having won at least one trophy in all of the nine years they’ve been in charge. However, Meads now have in front of them a prime example of how a season as promising as theirs was two months ago, with the team in two semis, one final and still with a shout for the league title, can wobble towards pear shaped.

The sad result of Wigan’s penultimate match is a salutary lesson to be learned and there but for the grace of God went Meads’ proud record of being in the top flight for just under forty years, as the size and ultimate strength of their squad was found ‘iffy’-ish, through a glut of injuries exacerbated by general fatigue, even before the end of season lottery spiced things up. Statistics can be misleading but to quote one or two, Meads’ Craig Jones was top scorer in the A.F.C. Premiership with twenty five from twenty two starts and the club had five in the top twenty goal scorers. However, the most telling statistic of the season concerns Meads’ keeper Gary Robinson. He had an amazing ten clean sheets out of thirty two starts and this justifiably won him Old Meadonians’ first team ‘Player of the Year’ award at their Awards Evening after Saturday’s matches. There was also champagne for centre back Lawrie Pointer and mid-fielder John Shea.

May 16, 2013