17 January 2009
Friendly
Home (Gresham 3G)

Playing at their eighth different home venue, Nottingham took until the hour mark to establish some authority over a plucky opponent who opened the scoring after fourteen minutes.

That lead didn't last long however as Chris L's inswinging corner was palmed in by an unlucky keeper. With the homesters fielding only two regular first Xl players the half was fairly even and ended all square with Cardiff defending well and in fact causing the odd problem on the counter attack. Perhaps that was hardly surprising with the Ballbois fielding a Dad's Army defence, the combined age of the back line and keeper being 217, with Scott L being the only flourish of youth to weigh in at comfortably under 40 years of age.

Into the second half and Nottingham's strong bench came into the equation now with a fifteen-minute spell that helped to decide the outcome. A neat finish from Craig S on 51 was consolidated when James H floated in a curling twenty yard free kick. Unfortunately, the Dragons keeper dislocated a finger whilst trying to keep it out and had to be replaced.

Both scorers added further strikes with James finishing off a lovely move when Chris's pinpoint pass put the youngster in the clear. Ballbois were getting into the groove playing their up tempo passing game which serves them so well and when Ian R sneaked in unnoticed he added a sixth. To their credit, Cardiff never gave in and continued to created a few chances but tiring legs probably didn't help much.
New boy Rob C was having a fine debut on the right wing and when Dave T (only 17) entered the fray he became the 50th Ballboi to wear the famous black shirt. He wasn't the youngest player though because striker Reece B played his part and scored a seventh goal right on full time.

This really was a friendly match and reminded those with long memories of old fashioned GFSN games where the result wasn't of paramount importance and everybody enjoyed the day. That's not to say that nobody gave less than 100%. So a fine afternoon's football all round with everyone gearing up for a night on the town!! Best wishes go to Dragons keeper Dave for a speedy recovery.

Team: Tony L, Scott L, John S, Shaun B, Andy B, Ian R, Matt H, Dave O, Paul B, Gareth D, Chris L
Subs: Craig S, Brett L, James H, Reece B, Rob C, Dave T
Goals: Craig S (2), James H (2), Chris L, Ian R, Reece B

Match gallery (opens in new window, hi-res images downloadable)