Abbey United FC is a group of fans that play against other fans' teams around the country in friendly games, usually on Saturday mornings. Here is the report from their second game of this season, on Saturday.
Abbey United 2 Millwall Supporters Team 11 (yes, ELEVEN as the BBC vidiprinter used to say back in the olden days)
A Saturday free from football was on the cards, but fortunately the withdrawal symptoms were saved by the Millwall fans who had offered us a match as both sides' 'proper' teams were scheduled to play on the Sunday.
It must have been a first for Abbey United this weekend. Everyone turned up ready for kick off, we were organised before the opposition and we had five rolling substitutes! The manager had some work to do, as once again we had no real strikers. Two members of the old guard were back and selected to play up front, and all those who travelled to Mansfield last week were rewarded, if rewarded is the right word, with a starting place.
The squad was as follows: -
GK: Pete Parnwell, RB: Andrew Lang, LB: James Barringer, CB: Mark Case, CB: Mark Bentley, RM: Tony Tarrant, LM: James Denton, CM Frankie Fry, CM Kyle Scott, FW: Ben Yelton, FW: Mike Osbourn.
Subs: LM: Craig Harding, RM: Justin Innerarity, CM: Richard Chege, CB: Richard French, FW: Craig
The game kicked off with Richard French agreeing to referee the first half. His maths skills were the skills most likely to be required though. The first 20 minutes weren't even, as such, but showed little of what was to follow. After 25 minutes the score was 1-0, however somehow by half time it was 7-0.
Millwall passed the ball round quickly and - more importantly - well! It was acutely obvious that the Millwall side had been playing together for quite some time and we couldn't get near them. They always had a spare man and even when we could get near them they pulled a trick out of the bag to pass the ball on.
We didn't communicate well, and didn't keep to our positions as well as we should have done, which helped to make their lives a little easier. These skills will come with time when we work out who is best suited to which position and, rather less technically, when we get to know each other's names properly. HALF TIME 0-7
At half time there were no harsh words, no rollicking, just a slight change in formation. We moved to a Jimmy Quinn-style 3-5-2 to match their midfield and put one man to mark their danger man. Credit must go to James Denton for the the change at half time and doing a sterling man-marking job, and for not hitting me as I kept yelling at him from the touchline to get close.
To say the change in formation worked would be an exaggeration and would give far too much credit to those involved in the decision, but we were certainly better than in the first half. We were quicker to the ball and making Millwall work a bit harder for their chances.
On 75 minutes and at 11-0 up Millwall changed their goalkeeper, and after this we pulled 2 goals back. Firstly a well struck free kick from Frankie Fry (realising a lifelong dream of scoring for Cambridge) on the left hand side from around 25 yards out flew into the far corner of the goal. A comeback was on the cards. A second nearly followed soon after as Richard French progressed out of central defence to clear a loose ball, and a clearance-cum-shot volleyed from near on 50 yards was destined for the top corner before the Millwall keeper scrambled back to tip acrobatically over the bar.
The second goal was from Richard Chege who hit a cross-cum-shot from the right hand side around 30 yards out, which floated over the keeper into the centre of the goal, but this was also helped by the keeper being slightly out of position.
FINAL SCORE 2-11
Now, for those of you reading this report and thinking "Blimey, that Abbey United must be rubbish", I feel it is important to point out that their number 7 was playing as part of a professional youth set up last year. A collection of south London non-league clubs may well currently be bouncing around your head, but he was released, apparently, by Chelsea. Yes, you did read that correctly. So it is hardly a surprise that he had little trouble skipping past me.
Get in touch if you feel losing on a regular basis is for you, or if you think that you could help us develop a winning mentality. Go to www.abbeyunited.co.uk to find out more.
Mark Case
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