Jagex Weather Melbourn Storm

Melbourn 1 - 3 Jagex

Fardell, Brooks, Balls, O'Neil, Winfield, Morgan, Scottish Dave, Lovell, Jon Hare, Usman, Adam, Murby, Some Guy Called Chris

First up, I'm really sorry. I spent the evening before this game dressed as Patrick Swayze, and had one too many Jaegarbombs - so a) I was late (having gone to the wrong ground); and b) my recollection is less than perfect.

This was also the weekend of the "worst storm ever", which disturbed one branch near my flat, and upset a cat on the corner near work. A new week brings new recruits, and we seem to have new employees every week, none of whom I recognise. As I was 10 minutes late, Brooks kindly donned the gloves whilst I found the ground. I also missed our first goal (which I'll give to Adam Ryman - I gather he did very well to score), and had to get dressed by the side of the pitch. Woe is me.

The early exchanges were characterised by periods of Jagex dominance, which fell to Pete, and Pete did his best to miss all opportunities presented to him. All I really saw in my first ten minutes were Winfield, Usman and Adam setting Pete up, and Pete missing it. He also got bundled over a bit.

The back four for Jagex this week was spot on, with O'Neil and Balls forming a formidable partnership in the centre, Murby put his hard earned muscles to good use at left back, and Scottish Dave used his tartan skills at right back. The whole first half didn't see any Jagex goal action, as the back four was as solid as Hadrian's wall, before it got really old and fell apart that is.

The midfield were generally holding their own, with Winfield playing anchor, and Usman and Piers taking on creative duties. We had a new winger this week, Chris I think, and he ran around and hit the ball to places. Piers did some stuff, as did Dave and Adam. Honestly, I was feeling rather ropey, so details are on the light side for the first half. We got in at 1-0 up, and people looked fine, apart from me.

The second half we were slightly more against the wind. The back four were still solid. A few changes saw Brooks and Hare get involved at the back. There were some marauding runs, by Piers, a cracking bit of play from Usman, and some excellent fight from Chris on the left.  Adam was also settling in nicely in the centre, and was supporting Piers on a few runs and jinky little interchanges. There were a few fouls, but it was generally an even tempered match.

The ref really should have gone to specsavers though, as he made some awful calls on who should get a goal kick/corner/throw-in. Winfield had been doing his Mathieu Flamini style little Corporal impression in the centre, winning tackles here and there. He was involved in a brief period of handbags with any opposition player after a spicy tackle, but generally keep his eye on the ball.

Piers eventually skipped down the right with ease, clipped the ball over the keeper, Usman did really well to flick it to the back post and Pete finally hit the target with a header. 2-0 to the Jagex. 

From the re-start, Melbourn exerted some more pressure on the ball, and eventually after some dilly-dallying on the edge of the box, Brooks couldn't quite out-muscle a Melbourn player. The player used the space to pull off a shot, and Fardell allowed it to go through the massive gap between his legs (Doh!). 

Heads briefly dropped, since the goalkeeping mistake was so bad that people must've thought that anything was going in (a bit like when Derek played in goal). We conceded a few corners and Lovell helped out manfully at the back. With their tails up, Melbourn managed to get a few shots away, but nothing particularly exciting. Scottish Dave tried to relieve the pressure on the right by playing out of defence.

One corner saw a wonderful sight, Fardell came out, shouted "keepers", and did his best dragon punch impression to clear the ball. The last time I came for a corner was in 2006.

After soaking up about 10 minutes of pressure, Jagex landed the killer blow. Usman laid off to Piers, Piers went on one of those runs, a masterclass in poise, balance and accuracy, he skipped past a whole host of Melbourn players and expertly slotted home. I'm not sure what we'd do without him.

It got a little windier at the end. Fardell punched another one clear from a corner (!), Lovell intercepted a few and the referee made some more atrocious errors in judgment. 3-1 the final result. Melbourn may have knocked us out of the cup, but we're a league team through and through.