Peterborough Sports FA Vase adventure continues after a truly amazing game at Welwyn Garden City with so many incidents and an interesting display from the officials with 5 straight red cards dished out and another 11 players cautioned. The opening half was actually fairly tame. The hosts took the lead on 9 minutes when Sports took an age to organise themselves for a Welwyn free kick and left home striker Joel Norris in splendid isolation to head home from close range. Two minutes later Sports almost drew level as Odain & Clements combined before the Sports winger fired a shot off that came back off the inside of the post and Sports had 2 chances to convert the rebound. By now the young and nervous looking referee had already made something of a rod for his own back with 3 very soft cautions and it was clear even then that this was not going to finish with 22 players on the pitch. The home side were slightly the better team in the first half and were playing most of the football, with impressive centre forward Jason Caswell curling a shot just wide of the far post. Chances were at a premium until the 40th minute when a glorious ball from Chris Lenton set the returning Dan Fountain clear, but he struggled to get the ball under control and fired over the bar. It was after half time that the fun and games really began. 5 minutes in we saw our first red card as goalscorer Norris was sent off for kicking out at Ryan Birtles as he lay on the floor. Just 4 minutes after this, Sports equalized through a Ryan Giggs versus Arsenal lookalike effort from Clements who went past 2 defenders, won a sliding block tackle against a 3rd, went past a 4th and fired in off the underside of the bar with his left foot for a goal even better than the recent Matt Cook effort against Buckingham. Unfortunately Sports did not really build on this and the home side continued to take the game to the Turbines even with 10 men and could have re-taken the lead on the hour mark. Wilkins Makate & Luke McShane failed to deal with a ball over the top between them and the Sports keeper was adjudged to have fouled Caswell, who nevertheless managed to actually stay on his feet and put the ball in the net after the whistle had already gone. Fortunately for Sports the penalty was drilled against the post, in the last real chance the home side had in truth. The final quarter of the game remained bad tempered, with every Sports foul drawing the Welwyn bench out en-masse calling for cards and the large, but good natured crowd baying for blood as well to try and get the sides back with even numbers with chants of off off off whenever a free kick went against Sports and the entire Sports defence got cautioned during this pantomine period. The last 5 minutes of the contest were memorable only for 2 horrendous offside flags going against Sports (with this reporter dead in line with both). Firstly Fountain again broke clear and with the Welwyn right back 10 yards behind the rest of the back 4, he was well onside (he may have been so far back that the assistant couldnt see him?) Unfortunately Scott Bogusz received a straight red card for his protests and the sides were evened up again. In the dying minute Ryan Wood timed his run perfectly to latch onto a through ball only to be flagged himself for an even more blatant error. So to extra time and the pantomime continued. Sports took the lead on 98 minutes with a neat goal. Andy Boome and substitute Gary Gibbs exchanged passes in midfield, before Boomes low cross found its way to Clements at the far post, who went around the keeper and scored from close range. Clements should have had a penalty 2 minutes later when cleaned out by the home keeper just as he was shooting on goal. In the 2nd period of extra time, Clements again got clear but was crowded out, though in general Sports were happy to sit deep and defend, with the hosts seeming to run out of ideas the longer the game went on. Sports skipper Ali Nyang was felled by a stray, but innocent elbow and got up to confront the culprit, both players pushed each other, but no punches were thrown, yet as expected and after an absolute eternity both players were shown straight red cards. In the final action of the game Clements broke clear and would have been in on goal but was crudely scythed down by a terrible tackle and the Welwyn centre half became the 5th straight red of the game and the only one that could not have any complaints really. Thankfully the ref blew shortly after bang on time and the ball could only have been in play for about 6 or 7 minutes in the 2nd period of extra time. Sports ended with all 6 defenders booked - McShane, substitute Wood, Holt, Lenton, Makate & Birltles as well as Gary Gibbs and the final body count for the match I believe was 16 different players cautioned or sent off and 8 playing 9 for the final few seconds. It certainly took a little bit of gloss from what should still be celebrated as one of the finest in the clubs history, but the downside will be Nyang & Bogusz missing the next round and some important league games, though at least in an area where Sports have some strength in depth. A truly remarkable day
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 13:35:07 +0000
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