The Whitehill Home Field at Stallard Park is not a happy hunting ground for the free-spirited Dragons and so they were glad to finally play here for the first time this season. It was a chance to vanquish their demons of defeat. The weather was crisp; the pitch was lush; the ball was pumped hard and the players were in good shape…..
Except for SF15 who has chickenpox and LF10 who will miss the season with his broken arm unfortunately sidelining him. Get well fallen Dragonsters from the Blackstone Faithful. Getting ahead of myself for a while now, but this was the best game of football that has been played by a team that has lost.
It was a performance that was second to none in my opinion. It had everything.
Whitehill won on the scoreboard 1-5, BUT the Dragons gave it their all and played how they can really play, winning the hearts of all that were there on the sidelines. The first half was a super effort by all and if Coach MT could bottle that performance from his charges and open it up on match day, he would be a happy man. Not only that, but all the Blackstone supporters would lose their voices each game from cheering so much – having to buy Lozenges in bulk. Blackstone played like a Thunder of Dragons raiding defenceless sheep in a paddock – it was near perfect. The defensive effort was supreme and it took Whitehall something special to register a goal. JH14 stood up today as goalkeeper and displayed that he can talk the talk and walk the walk. His first half was a screamer as Whitehill blasted away on goal and the Dragon custodian either parried the ball out of trouble, booted it as far as he could or made great diving saves. Officially he is under 5 foot in height but he played 10 foot tall today. If only he played 10 foot 5 inches tall because the only way Whitehill scored was in the top of the net as unfortunately JH14 just couldn’t reach the hot shot while vertically fully out-stretched. The Defenders were men possessed and hustled for the ball, showed zeal for the contests and ran as hard as their under 10 year old legs could manage.
RC9, HD4, CS12 and TR11 brought out their big games today and made the Whitehill strikers work to breaking point, earning much respect form the crowd and both coaches.
WM13, JCP2 and JL5 scrapped, skirmished and scuffled for the size 4 spinning round thing and provided strength in defence as well as delivery to the strikers in attack. You guys are the backbone of the team!
RW3, MT6, LB7 and AB8 kept the pressure on the Whitehill defenders time and time again, giving the crowd and coaches something to get excited about.
So………
It was 0-1 to the ‘auld’ enemy at about the 9th minute mark of the first half, but no team looked better than the other – without a lie. Whitehill are a well drilled team and the opposition coach changed his playing formation around and it paid dividends with a solid strike that zoomed around HD4 and past JH14 who was unsighted. 0-2. The Dragons needed to hit back straight away as per the classic sporting movie script suggests and this they did! Finally one of the really good chances delivered by JH14 who booted the ball massively to the midfielders who then tipped it on forwards was latched onto by LB7 who once again got around a wall of defenders and got a shot on goal that zipped past the keeper who had no hope. The Blackstone Cheer squad made a thunderous-like noise in appreciation of such a great team goal and it was game on! 1-2. All Dragons were playing so well and doing their jobs that nobody saw a Whitehill goal just before half time coming. But it did. The ball was volleyed into the 6 yard box and after a lengthy chicken-scratch for the ball, the Dragons just couldn’t get rid of it and a lucky Whitehill foot snuck it through the pack and into the net. 1-3.
Coach MT couldn’t hold back his pride for his lads and praised all for the great game so far. Everybody did their job.
The second half started off like the first and it was a rip-roaring affair. Again, the Dragon strikers and midfielders had chances to get the ball down to the Whitehill goal to have a shot, but the opposition were too good and shut-down all the Red Shirts efforts to penetrate the back field. Against any other team, it would have been a goal-fest and this report could be totally different with the result in Blackstone’s favour. At 1-3 for a long time, Whitehill made it 1-4 after an own goal by a Dragon and then another scrappy chicken-scratch type of goal a little later to end it at 1-5. The score today doesn’t matter, as today we witnessed 40 minutes of football from the Dragons.
A close acquaintance of mine named Yoda once said: “Do or Do not, there is no try”.
And during this match, the Dragons DID!
After such a pulsating match full of team goodness, the Dragon Hierarchy of Coach MT and Ma Baker were perplexed at the thought of only presenting one ‘Player of the Match’ award as all were so great. However, they believed that TR11 stood up just that iddy-biddy-bit more than the others today.
Mix his efforts today with his good training sense, purposefulness attempts and demeanour, he definitely earned it.
Next week will be the big test for the Dragons who start the second half of the season back at their home ground with what is sure to be a banger of a game against St. Cats White.
Hopefully the revitalized Dragons with a redesigned playing formation and improving skill set can maintain the fury.