Innercity vs North Romford – 18/09/2005

North Romford left it late but won 2-1

Goals;
Edwards.

Sunday 18th September saw the start of another long, arduous campaign for the NRFC lads. With a couple of retirements pre-season, along with unavailability from key players, it was vital they got off to a good start.
As was to be expected, the opposition were keen to impress, being new to the league. They were out warming up before Timid Mick had even turned up. It is rumoured he was late as he was having an extra couple of minutes on the sunbed, but this is unconfirmed.
With the usual dressing room festivities out of the way, he named his first line-up of the season, and there were a few surprises!! Spicy was selected to start at centre-half, with Wadsy lining up at right-back. There were rumbles on the terraces that Wadsy should have kept his midfield anchor role, following his complete performance in the pre-season friendly, but Mick had other ideas.
The game began with NRFC soon settling into a fluent style, akin to Holland ’74 and it wasn’t long before the first of the 206 misses occurred, probably from Gav!! The game continued in the same vein for the entire first half, with misses being spread throughout the side. Marky P was guilty of suffering from weak foot disease, and Nev and Gregg ballsed up an open goal, as they have to be side-by-side at all times!!
Unbelievably, the half-time score was 0-0, with Brownie not having a shot to save. The message went out that all the boys needed to do was play the same way, and the first goal would surely come, and come it did! The Innercity forward was played through beautifully by Wadsy, and he made no mistake in slotting past the Big Man, who had a look at disbelief on his face, probably because Wadsy had played a decent pass!!
It was now that the rollickings begun, with Spicy, Gav & the Gaffer becoming embroiled in a family feud not seen since Grant & Phil both slept with Sharon in Eastenders. This did little to help confidence in the ranks, and chances continued to be squandered by the wasteful NRFC. This wasn’t helped by Herman Munster in the Innercity goal playing like the Polish goalkeeper of 1973, and saving everything that was on target. Bearing in mind that he had the tightest bottoms on ever seen, it was quite an achievement!!
The equalizer came when Nev’s mate Jason arrived unmarked to head home from a Johnson free-kick. You would think that this would stop the arguing, but you would be wrong! On and on it went, with Gav still missing glorious chances, even when he was arguing with Jamie. Quite incredible.
The deserved winner came when Jason broke from midfield and fired across the 9ft 8in freak, who was helpless to move let alone save it.
The final whistle sounded without any further drama, until the comfort of the dressing room, when the arguments continued in earnest, with Wadsy invited to join. Nothing
was achieved by this, and we all look forward to Sunday, when the same problems will rear their ugly heads!
I am so glad the season is back..
Team: Brown, Wadsworth Jnr, Rabey, Cordelli, Smiler, McClements, Johnson, Neville, Richards, Clifton, M Parmenter (Edwards).

report by Kev P