Green Book 2022: Tomorrow We'll Be Sore

Backs to the wall, zero points with a diabolical goal difference to boot, barebones mixed
squad, long pitch under the meek floodlights of Len Shearer on a drizzly Tuesday night
facing a new team in the comp who brought along few players from their A team - perfect!
The chance bye next weekend could not come soon enough. But in a true Green fashion ...
Tuesday, 10 May, Len Shearer
MUM FC Green v Belmont Villa 1 — 0 (Round 2, previously postponed)
Well, if Sunday’s drubbing at the hands of Curtin (6-3) was still the darkness of the night,
Tuesday night’s catch up Easter fixture against Belmont was the sentinel of dawn and better
things to come for Greens. With the first full set of points and a clean sheet to go no less!
Before the game we just about pleaded for any Greens player listed to play NOT to take a
COVID test because it seems that everyone that did tested positive. With five down with
COVID, four injuries and two players away, our brothers in Red graciously returned the
favour from a few weeks ago and supplied the much needed support for the tired legs in a
tight turnaround after Sunday. Thank you fellas!
Dominating from the kick off, Greens played good, organised football. The backline was a
perfect Red-Green union between John, Michael, Ross and Steve, the midfield, also tinged
with a bit of red hue with the likes of “Mick/Mack/Mark/Msomething” (Hector’s special way of
calling his teammates), supplied a bunch of lovely balls forward but the last third felt like
some sorcerer cast a spell on us scoring. Through balls, lay offs, one-on-one with the keeper,
rebounds from a yard out, shots from inside and outside box … whatever we threw at them,
it bounced off like some sort of force field into touch or the belly of the nuggety, hard-toactually
hit keeper. 0-0 was no true reflection at half time as we could have been easily 3 or 4
up! To make things worse Daniel had to shower early due to calf injury too.
Second half continued similarly as the first but there were first signs of Belmont (apparently
playing with their own reinforcements from a team up a grade) finding their form, stringing
some quality passes and showing a bit more resolve. Holding shape became even more
important and everyone chipped in on the job, marshalled fantastically by John (O’Brien) &
co at the back. The wave of Green attacks continued and at one point, Ali latched on to a
rebound outside the box, sent a ball the way of satellites only to have the gravity bring it
down with absolutely no hope for their vertically challenged, or any size for that matter,
keeper. 1-0, half way through second. This of course spiked the sense of urgency at both
ends. Belmont became even more threatening but the likes of Steve not-fucken-going-pastme-lad
and one of the discoveries of the year so far at left back made sure that nothing but
a few tricky dewy balls came Tomaz’s way to clean up with a couple of heart-in-mouth
moments to excite the crowds. In the last ten minutes nobody bothered too much about the
midfield as formation became more of a 4-2-4 with both teams desperate to score at their
respective ends but the combination of tired legs and determined legs to stop them ensured
the score did not change. The monkey was off the Greens back with the first set of points for
the season and boy we are looking forward to a bye this Sunday …
Special thanks to Ezio and Liam for stepping in to ref the game, job well done and really
appreciated by both teams.