16th Oct 2007 BCIIII vs. Boca Shenley

BCIIII 0-6 Boca Shenley

Captain Rolfe Man of the Match:   Brett
Captain Rolfe Match Summary: 
The team:-
Disco - never mind "the cat" we had “the tiger" bigger, stronger and more powerful than any tabby!
Daz and Brett stood like two knights proudly announcing “None shall pass".
Martin - happily accepted the Herculean task of protecting the back two, breaking up the play and then throwing himself forward when the opportunity arose.
Darryl - given creative license to use his flair and guile in a free role
Sean - “The Poacher"  De Fraine - the mighty goal machine ploughed a lone furrow up front as hungry as ever to score

For the first 10 minutes BC4 stood resolute in their defence not just blocking wave after wave of attack but on the odd occasion crossing the half way line in a BC4 style 1 or 2 man counter attack.
It started to look like the plan was going to achieve its goal, frustrate the pretenders to the league throne and grab a goal on the counter. As the ball bounced around the middle of the pitch seemingly in no-mans land a Boca player struck a shot of epic magnitude , with the outside of the foot , power and curl saw the ball nestle in the top corner of the BC goal.

Never mind, it can happen to any team. From the kick off Bunky's got back to work and again look resilient in formation to only see the rising hope of a comeback dashed against the rocks of another mighty strike from the Boca team - 2 goals any team would be proud to of and just very bad luck for Bunky's to be on the receiving end. It couldn't get any worse, could it!

The 2nd half started - a new dawn a new hope - after giving his all Darryl made way for Gaz and with renewed vigour BC4 tried to push on and there were times when some very neat interchange of play saw Bunky's put the Boca keeper under pressure . One such 3 man interchange resulted in a clear one on one but "the Cat" luckily managed to slide a foot into the path of the ball stopping a certain goal and surely the start of a comeback!

In the attempt to get back into the match the game opened up as Bunky's became much more "fluid" in formation, a third goal struck from out wide and at a angle seemed to take the last ounce of resilience from the Bunky team and goals 4,5 and 6 closely followed. None of the goals were of poor or scrambled quality, all thunderous shots hitting top left or top right. Even when close to the keeper the venom in the shot was enough to get through Disco's out stretched grasp and into the net.

Team Summary
The keeper -  performed some fantastic saves including one in particular when at full stretch, low to his left he managed to tip the ball just wide of the post, Gordon Banks would have applauded such quality.
Brett - excellent performance - defended well, tackled hard and on more than one occasion just got his foot in the way to stop another strike on goal. Pushed forward late on and was a part of the best Bunky's goal scoring efforts.
Daz - as the game wore on he pushed up a bit more and looked more like that dangerous attacker we know he can be, more of it !
Martin - given a thankless task and did it well - putting body and ankles on the line !
Darryl - energetic as always and did well in what was probably not the type of game where he can show his true ability
Sean - as I said before " as hungry as ever " but tonight he was starved - lots of effort to create an out for our defence and tracked back when required - very solid performance.
Gaz - came into a very difficult match but managed to perform very well both in defence and getting forward , a true Gareth Barry in the making !!!!

The down side
Some commentators could say that Bunky's let the opposition have to much time on the ball which enabled Boca to unleash the shots they did. Closing down quickly and effectively is crucial when playing teams like Boca . Those same commentators could also say that because Bunky's were under the cosh from the start we became too defensive often with 4 players defending within 15 feet of the goal area. This defensive mentality became difficult to break out of - something to guard against in the future.
Towards the end some looked tired & frustrated and although you are not obliged to a self-substitution maybe a wise move.

Captains Comment
I stand by what I said last night - sometimes you come up against a team who hit form just at the wrong time - on the pitch against us ! That is what happened last night. We should just dismiss it as one of those games and move on to the next series of games where we will be picking up points and we need the belief and confidence to do so.
   

Voting Players Man of the Match:   Brett/Sean

Below follows that anonymous one-liners!