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YCAC Sunday 9th March,
The phrase "Famous Last Stands" usually brings to mind the image of valiant but ultimately unsuccessful combat against overwhelming odds - Custer's regiment defended stoutly but ended up getting some very unbecoming haircuts from Sitting Bull's braves, and even the fabled 300 Spartans were ultimately kebabbed by the Persian hordes. But in the Battle of Yamate Hill on Sunday the Albion Old Boys overcame a two-man disadvantage in the first-half and a hometown gale in the second to record an unlikely come-from-behind win against YCAC 2nds.
It was a bright and sunny Spring morning in Yokohama, but there was an ominous dark cloud hanging over the Old Boys pre-match huddle with only nine of the expected twelve-man squad reporting for duty, and so it was 3-4-1 against 4-4-2 as the teams lined up for kick-off. Now it would be reasonable to have expected such a numerically and chronologically challenged Albion defence to have had more holes than a brothelful of prozzies getting paid in polo mints, but the YCAC were slow to take advantage, and for the first quarter of the game The Thin Blue Line held without forcing goalkeeper Hitoshi into too much action. The home team had their usual radical mixture of experience and youth - nine grizzled veterans bookended by a pair of subbuteo-sized schoolboy wingers. It's a selection policy which many of us feel puts a lot of unfair pressure on opponents, who are effectively being asked to change the nature of the game to protect the youngsters. If a player weighs less than an empty crisp packet he's bound to be blown away by tackles that wouldn't even knock over an experienced adult player, so it's really up to team managers to make sure that youngsters are not exposed to the rough-and tumble of a league like this until they're physically ready for it (I don't know how this High Horse suddenly appeared under my keyboard, but it's giving me a nosebleed so I'd better dismount and get back to reporting the game). Anyway, it was one of these nimble nippers (Simon?) who finally scaled the walls of the Alamo in around the 25th minute, latching on to a delightfully clever flick from Karl Hahne and squeezing a shot inside Hitoshi's near post with an assurance that belied his 14 years.
This might have been the cue for the floodgates to open wider than a proz... (Sorry Tel, but you know the rules - only one prostitute analogy per match report - Ed). OK... this might have been the cue for the floodgates to open, but with Naoki arriving five minutes before the break - quite early by his standards - and plenty more determined defending, the Old Boys held out till half-time without further alarms. 1-0 to YCAC at the break.
The addition of Dave Noon for the second half - knackered from the previous day but admirably willing to join the cause - made it 11 v 11 and gave the Old Boys some hope for getting back into the game, though the optimism was tempered by a mischievous change in the conditions as the notorious YCAC breeze, which had been the gentlest of zephyrs throughout the first half, finally roused itself and started blowing hard towards the clubhouse end which Albion now had to defend. So the game continued to be played mainly in the visitor's half, though YCAC's territorial domination didn't bring them nearly as many clear-cut chances as they would have hoped for. The Old Boys continued to defend doggedly, with sweeper Mark, who covers the ground ridiculously quickly for a bloke in his late forties, plugging gaps almost before they'd appeared, and Karl (our Twohig, not their Hahne) working his shapely tits off to stem the tide in midfield. And then on around the hour mark the game took an interesting turn as the YCAC got caught with too many players pushing forward and Dave Noon was put through one-on one with the keeper. For such a big man the giant custodian did ever so well to come out quickly and parry low to his left as Dave shot past him, but somehow the ball bobbled onward and ended up nestled in the corner of the net. An Albion equalizer against the run of play provoked even more pressure from the home side as the game entered its final stages, and as the over-exertions of the short-handed first half began to take their toll the Old Boys' legs were looking wobblier than a prozzie's...(Oi! What did I just tell you? - Ed) OK .. the Old Boys' legs were getting wobbly. In the final minutes the YCAC forced a succession of corners, after the third or fourth of which the ball spent about thirty seconds being pinged like a pinball around the six-yard box before being hoofed away. First onto the hoof was Mick O'Hagan, who raced away from the pursuing defenders, refused to give up when his initial shot was well blocked by the advancing keeper, and forced the rebound home for a memorable winner.
So another three points quarried from a day of exceptional effort, and having covered more ground in this game than a colony of ants in a Sugar Puffs factory, I'm sure that even the fittest of the Old Boys will have endured a ten-aspirin Monday of aching joints and immobilizing muscle pains. Welcome to my world.
Report by Terry Cooney
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