Who knew there was a Tooting and Mitcham football team? Apparently there are and Hillcroft play by the side of their stadium.
With a late face off and the Hillcroft second team playing on the pitch, Spencer had to sit around, listen to some Motown funk and soak up the aromatic scents of the nearby Caribbean food. A true ‘sowf east landan’ experience.
With the light fading, Spencer began the game confident but under no illusion there was a tough task ahead. The sparrows travelled to the game with a squad of 12 to Hillcroft’s 16. Their new US additions looked good and they scored almost immediately to put Spencer behind for the second time this season.
Ironically, winning a game with a 15 goal margin and playing beautiful lacrosse, doesn’t tell you a lot apart from the gulf between your team and the opposition. Defining moments are when you team is caught with their trousers down. Spencer had their belt loose and was showing ass crack.
Max ‘commando’ Sandy retorted with a superb individual finish to level the scores. The first quarter was sloppy but Spencer were leading with Rob ‘take me’ Holmes with a typically fine finish.
The second quarter saw Spencer playing some good lacrosse and moving the ball well. Rotation was working with team and individual goals finding the net. With the sparrows leading at half time by only a few, the game was closer than the team would have liked. But the only time spencer looked rattled was during quick transition from the opposition as the defence stayed solid.
Just before the half, Tom ‘Irish cream’ Bailey decided to try and dish out some pain, but came off decidedly worse with an awkward collision. After a few worrying moments it appeared to be only a flesh wound. Luckily he had a small army of fans on the sideline to look after him.
If the first half went roughly to plan apart from a few goals against, the second was not. Hillcroft wanted to see more than ass crack and were starting to pull Spencers pants down. With their superior numbers Spencer had to ride the storm. In the words of Jonny ‘I can’t even get into infernos’ Clarke “its business time boys”.
Hillcroft started the half with a melee of goals. Spencer for the first time this season started to look ordinary. Seeing such a decidedly downward spiral, Liam ‘let’s play like Sheffield Utd’ McGreavy called an inspired time out to gather the troops.
Spencer replied with a dogged performance by getting back to basics to see the game out.
Kohl ‘smackdown’ Meyer put his neck on the line by throwing himself into some compromising positions for the result. As a result, he took some bad hits. As a sparrow, he can expect some backup from the flock and Alan ‘farther figure’ Keely responded with a hit so late, I’m surprised the flag wasn’t thrown next week.
The uncharacteristically passive Keeley then picked on their Canadian attacker and all hell broke loose. With players coming from all sides, the game could have gotten out of hand like, once again, Kohl’s jumper choice. Thankfully order was restored and the game continued.
Spencer rode the storm for a 12 – 7 victory. It was unconvincing yet convincing that showed when the chips are down, Spencer have the fight and resolve to carry through. Hampstead next week should be another test of Spencers bottle. Lets just hope that the Sparrows can keep their pants up and fly away with a win.
Goals on the day came from McGreavy, Meyer, Sandy, Will ‘shit stick trick’ Walker and Holmes.
Special mention to Rick ‘give a dog a’ Bone, Ant ‘marathon not decathlon’ Kirkwood, Joe ‘number 10 punched me’ Darkins and Jarrad ‘England legend’ Pangrazio.
Spencer were;
Rick Bone, Ant Kirkwood, Jonny Clarke, Tom Bailey, Alan Keeley, Kohl Meyer, Max Sandy, Joe Darkins, Will Walker, Liam McGreavy, Rob Holmes and Jarrad Pangrazio