Men’s M1W v PEGS (R11)
Kew 7 def PEGS 1
Hypothermia in round 2 had made it difficult to recall our first game vs. PEGS this season but the team was keen to take advantage of a return to Fortress Elgar.
Bolstered by the inclusion of fresh (???) legs in Morrow and Harper and the return of Drew (you would have thought it would be difficult to increase the average age of the team but we have succeeded) the boys started with a flurry and were quickly 1 – nil up after our first corner. As is the norm we just as quickly got ahead of ourselves and thought we were going to run away with an easy win. Repeated turnovers soon cost us and we were back to 1 all. A pretty ugly first half saw us level at the turn with only Hayden playing up to expectations and carrying the rest of the team.
A good hard look at ourselves at half time and some great constructive criticism from Clancy soon had us back on track. We returned to solid defence and controlled outletting from Benny and Clance while Slacky took charge in the defensive circle to ensure a clean sheet in the second half. With Lach, Jim and Charlie getting on top in the midfield we went back to our tried and true game plan of get it to the wings – Barney and Hillsy, letting them run it up to the circle then hit to Cleavey on the spot to finish. After this had worked 4 times we were in the drivers seat. Barney then chimed in with a deflection to start to share the goalscoring around.
A good sized home crowd was in attendance – expecting some sub-continental magic from Harper, picked up on his recent foray to India (unfortunately they are still waiting). They were however treated to some entertainment as the game got a bit willing. Good discipline from the KEW players though, meant that the only cards shown were to PEGS players.
As the game got away from them PEGS started with the jovial banter, the insult that we were “Older than Methusaleh” (where in fact we are only half his age – 969 years) was clearly innapropriate. Whilst an education at PEGS may have helped with the classics it certainly didn’t help with arithmetic – as Matty Morrow pointed out, most teams don’t sledge when they are 5 goals down. Lachie extending the lead to six finally got the message through that they should focus more on the ball.
In summary, a pretty ordinary first half followed by a very good second half saw us back up the old saying – “you can’t buy experience” (particularly 480 years worth).
Kew 7 (Cleave 5, B. Allen 1, L. Morrison 1) def PEGS 1
