Match Report - SANTOS VETS - 16 Apr 2017

Managers report.....Despite our obvious leaning towards the good lord on this easter sunday we managed to put out a very competitive team to play Santos vets at the very impressive Pavilion ground in my spiritual home New Eltham. It was refreshing to see the opposition fielding a team in the true spirit of vets football and not throwing in a couple of wet behind the ears youngsters to sprint past our defence and turning the game into a farce. The game started very evenly in the bank holiday sunshine and some stout defending and good counter attacking by E.F.F ensured that this was to be an enjoyable encounter,it took a cracking half volley from just inside the box to break the dead lock and put Santos 1-0 up after 25 mins. Still we stuck in there and with another sweeping counter attack Gary Phillips fed his name sake Gary Geezer Hodge with a well timed ball through the middle leaving him 1 on 1 with the keeper and Hodgie made no mistake with a sublime finish lobbing the 9ft 6inch keeper with aplomb.?? Coming so close to the half time whistle Manager Dave had to tear up his half time talk and rewrite it very quickly. A couple of changes where made and as the game continued to swing end to end our debutant Dario found himself clear on the left and stuck the ball under the advancing keeper and after what seemed like an eternity nestled in the far right bottom corner of the net.......2-1 to us and a very rare victory seemed like a real possibility and with a little more luck and some goaline technology we could have gone 3-1 up hitting the bar twice and having one hacked off the line.?? A combination of the sunshine and hard work saw us tire in the last 20 mins and gaps began to grow between the midfield and defence and in fairness the Santos midfield was very good and began to take control and 2 goals in fairly quick succession gave them back the advantage, There was however still time for Andy Burton to pull off a fantastic penalty save after he had wiped out there center forward??. So a narrow defeat but once again a spirited performance and proof that we can compete with teams of an even age bracket and ive got a feeling that first win may not be too far away....Rotterdam maybe??? well done lads great effort