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Hachioji Park, Sunday 4th November,
A fine late Autumn day. A beautiful astroturf playing surface. What more could you ask for? Well, a pitch that was smaller than Okinawa would probably have been appreciated by some of the veterans on parade at Hachioji Park, as would a Saturday kick-off to allow a proper post-match drinkathon without work the next day, but these are some of the trials and tribulations that a homeless, itinerant bunch of Old Boys must cope as they face up to life after St Mary's. And they seem to be coping pretty well, as indicated by another impressive performance on Sunday.
Albion dominated from the start and despite not really getting their passing mojo working early on they kept the pressure on and made plenty of chances. The opening goal came when the Jets failed to clear a Mick O'Hagan corner, and skipper George "Does Pele Rhyme with Belly?" Clarkson was on hand to force the ball and several teammates over the line. The second goal was much easier on the eye, as Naoki Ogasawara threaded a perfect pass though the centre of the Jets defence, Hitoshi Ono turned his marker to latch on to it and left the keeper no chance with a powerful finish. Jets were unlucky towards the end of the half when a powerful long-range shot rattled the bar and bounced down onto? behind? the line before being whacked away to safety. But instead of the Turkish-speaking Russian linesman who gave England a break in '66, the Jets got a Gaelic-speaking Old Boy with a flag for a pillow who had to be woken up to be asked for an opinion. The referee was too far away to make the call - it is a BIG pitch - so no goal, and 2-0 to the Old Boys at the break.
The second half, like the first, was played mostly in the Jets part of Saitama, and the third goal came when Hitoshi used his pace to latch on to a through ball played in behind a pushed-up Jets back line. Though Jets keeper Fraser did well to block Hitoshi's shot, the ball came back to the striker, and he made no mistake the second time around. Goal number four was again from an O'Hagan corner, a lot of traffic in the goalmouth but Tel used the Yono Bypass to motor in at the far post and park the ball in the net. The game was won by now but there was still a clean sheet to aim for. Couldn't do it though, with the Albion defence guilty of backing off too much as the Jets midfield broke forward. Sweeper Mark van den Bossche wins this season's Mystic Meg Award as his shout of "It's OK - there's no way that bloke scores from there" is followed a split-second later by the sound of that bloke's unstoppable 25-yarder thudding into the back of the Albion net. Still, the loss of the clean sheet did stir the Old Boys back into action sufficiently to restore the four-goal cushion, with Kuni Hosoi finishing off a slick passing move to bang home goal number 5 of win number 5 in game number 5.
Report by Terry Cooney
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