Amateur Football Combination Premier Division

Old Meadonians 3 Parkfield 0

Old Meadonians stole a march on the rest of their division by being one of the only two sides to play on Saturday, the other being Parkfield who are now residing at the bottom of the league, having been torpedoed and sunk after a traumatic engagement with rampant Meads at Riverside Lands.

The hosts took control from the kick-off and were unlucky not to be three up in fifteen minutes as Craig Jones was just over when he lobbed the keeper and immediately afterwards rounded the besieged custodian to clip the post from a narrow angle and then Ryan Bright twisted past his marker to skim the far post.

Before halftime, the visitors survived squeak after squeak: Bright hit the post from fifteen yards from debutant Jirah Makoukou’s cross and, just to put a damper on Meads’ aspirations, Sod’s Law reared its ugly head as the visitors also hit the post. With joint manager Paul Rumley away scouting, Rory Vermeulen had the floor to himself at the break. His message, brief and to the point, ‘Don’t get frustrated. It will come!’ was taken to heart as Meads continued where they had left off and instantly laid siege. After yet two more narrow escapes for the visitors, the hosts’ patience was rewarded on the hour.

Bright cut in from the right and, when his shot was parried by the keeper, Jones snapped up the rebound. As Parkfield lost their rudder, Meads got their second five minutes later from a Jack Costello lob out of the sun and with five minutes to go Makoukou capped his excellent debut by cutting in from the right and firing into the far corner. With a bit more luck Meads might have doubled their score and this was in no small part due to the constant nagging probing of Ryan Bright and Matt Allen whose pace on the ball shows every sign of replacing the cutting edge of former Meads speedster Peter Eguae.

Expert leadership provided by Craig Jones bodes well for the team’s ability to score prolifically but in his post match briefing Vermeulen stressed that it was Meads’ intention to continue to build from the back as demonstrated by the fact that the visitors’ share of the ball was barely thirty percent, generating a meagre four chances to their hosts’ abundance. In line with this clear tactical thinking Vermeuken named John Shea as MoM for his marshalling of Meads’ dominant midfield.

Squad: Robinson, Makoukou, McCombe, Sullivan, Quinn, Costello, Shea, Chapman, Allen, Bright, C. Jones, Davies, Gowers, Mantel.

September 11, 2013