I opened the curtains this morning and saw a familiar sight.
Rain, and lots of it....adding to the 1.7 metres which has fallen in the past 68 days.
The shins were sore from yesterdays efforts ." Aah blessed relief! She'll be off and we'll do it next week"
Wrong! The game was on and the pitch resembled thick gravy with a pinch of parsley thrown in. Somebody in the team mentioned that Manurewa were 14 divisions higher than us. That got the romantics in the side trying to draw a parallel....Liverpool v Havant & Waterlooville? Tooting & Mitcham v Man Utd maybe?
I looked at slightly different...it was like Alan Wells taking on Usain Bolt.....not Allan Wells in his prime, but the Alan Wipper Wells who is now 56.
Lets see....the starting line up was as follows:
Andre "Man Mountain" Van Lieshout, Mark Harveymeister, Tony "Mr President" D, Liam "Take no Shit" Moorhouse, Gavin "When will I score" McKenzie, George Wipper Milloy, Steve "The Bairn" Fabrello, Dave "Duracell" Benard, Jonny "Get stuck in" Keen, Russell "What I lack in pace, I make up in tackles" Whiter, Andy "Tomba la Bomba" Davey.
Pete "The Silver Fox" Clark , Daryl "I'm on the scoresheet now, what have you done Gavin?" Wilson and The Fatman made up the bench.
Jim Hey, blew the whistle and off we went. Here's a brief summary:
0-15 minutes: Honours even....lots of chasing and hassle from the lads...the bog is making it a great leveller...however we get a let off when their striker misses an open goal following great work down the left.....as Andre would say "UNLUCKY SON!"
20-40 minutes: Manurewa take the lead via the penalty spot. Jim awards a penalty following a challenge from Liam. Some say it was warranted, others say it was a crock. Personally, I thought the striker went down far too easily and didn't appeal when he hit the onion soup....that said, the refs decision is final and you have to respect it.
We hit back, Andy D just fails to connect with a through ball and the chance goes begging.
The last 5 minutes of the half are spent running the clock down, as the lads are getting run ragged....that said, the defence is coping effortlessly with everything that is asked of them, restricting the youngsters to long range efforts that Andre deals easliy with.
Half time 1-0 down...we're still in it...the next goal would be crucial.
45-70 minutes....The heavens open, the sky rumbles, the spectators flee for cover, the gluepot becomes even stickier. Russell Whiter and George Milloy run themselves to a standstill and both get a standing ovation when they are replaced by Pete and Daryl.
With 20 to go we are still in it...Andy Davey is through but hits it at the keeper.....the rebound then causes concussion to Barthez . Then disaster strikes. Firstly, Liam clashes with Pubeless 1 and then pushes him away like a father to an errant son. He gets a yellow card for his troubles.
Next the ball is played into the box, Liam mis-times his challenges and takes out Pubeless 2. Penalty awarded and a second yellow card is shown.....down to 10 men and the lads need oxygen like an Everest veteran.
Andre stares down the penalty taker and proceeds to make a magnificent save low to his right.....he can't hold it and the Rewa captain tries to capitalise on the rebound...one problem.... he connects with Andre's head! Jim shows him a red card and it's all on again.
The final 10 minutes finally saw the youngsters take charge. Firstly, the ball got stuck in the box...we tried to hack it clear and their fitttest lad lumped it in from close range. BUGGER, BUGGER, BUGGER....then Rewa's best player got the ball on the edge of the box, dribbled through the clarts and stuffed it inside the left post....3-0 and cruel.
The last 2 minutes saw a legitimate penalty claim waved away when Pete Clark was wiped out as he pulled the trigger.
The full time whistle blew and our magical cup run was over........the lads had acquitted themselves admirably......It really was Men against Boys...this time, fresh legs counted for more than sensible sinews.
Thanks to Jim, Glen and Bots for officiating in truly atrocious conditions and to all the good folk from both clubs who came to cheer their respective teams on.
Finally, big thanks to Pete Wild and Devon Fabrello for their after match efforts.
It was muddy brilliant!