Parkfield 2 Old Meadonians 3

Second half fightback secures three points for Meads

Amateur Football Combination Premier Division

Once more Old Meadonians were forced to go into recovery mode as they showed their steely resilience to bring away the spoils from Parkfield’s Hatch End ground after coming back from their hosts’ two goal blitz in the dying minutes of the first half on Saturday.

With fellow coach Paul Rumley away scouting on what has turned out to be a highly successful trip, Rory Vermeulen showed he’s well on the way to recovery from manipulative surgery by putting in an influential solo stint in the dug-out including allegedly instigating Meads’ second half fight back with his sharp edged tongue.

For Meads the return of centre-back Lawrie Pointer, adding the much needed pace of his covering and freeing Nick Jones to put his shoulder to the wheel in midfield was welcome.

However, it was Peter Eguae who started them off on the right note after twenty minutes, celebrating his appointment as captain of the A.F.A. representative side by cutting in from the left and lashing a thirty yarder into the far top corner. Parkfield have made a poor start with only one win in five games but they were about to punish their visitors for anticipating the half-time break with two breakaways in the last five minutes of the half; from the first, a low cross was tucked in at the near post and the second yielded a powerful far post header from a deep cross. Added to this keeper Gary Robinson had to make a finger-tip save to prevent a third set-back.

Security round the half time conflab was as impenetrable as ever but it was allegedly one sided and rumour has it that the team were told that, if they weren’t prepared to make a fight of it, they might as well pack up there and then and head home. Whoever told the Parkfield skipper to have the significant slope in the first half enabled Meads to weather any residual impetus left over from the hosts’ late first half surge. Consequently Meads allowed them a brief flourish before taking the initiative.

It took the visitors ten minutes to wipe off the arrears with Craig Jones crouching to head in Jack Costello’s whipped low cross from the right. Now on came Ed Glover and it was his supreme ability to win the ball in the air that fuelled Meads’ growing dominance. Jones’ second, a big dipper from an angle on the right was a fitting and deserved finale with just three minutes left on the clock. The collective efforts of the defence earned them the MoM award.

Team: Robinson, Shea, Pointer, McCombe, Mantel, Costello, N. Jones, Gerrish, Eguae, Wilson, (Glover), C. Jones. Sub. (not used) Graham.

October 26, 2011