Downs League blogs

30 April

This has been my second full season with The Cowboys and it couldn’t have been different from my first. Last season we were fighting for promotion, eventually finishing fourth and were runners up in the cup. This season we have been fighting relegation and were knocked out of the cup in the first round with a team from the league below who only had ten players.

We had tough end of season playing both Tebby and Torpedo who were going for going for promotion and on the last game of the season a real relegation dogfight with Sneyd. As it turned out it all came down to the last game of the season, winner takes all; loser is relegated to the bottom tier of English football.

One of the lowest points of my season was being beaten 8-2 by Sneyd Park in a match when our management forgot we didn’t have a goalie; so this time we were out for revenge. This game was the biggest of my life, I’ve never been relegated and I know how difficult it is to get out of division 4 as Torpedo have proved the last two years.

Sneyd started much better taking a rather fortuitous lead, we were lucky to keep it at 1-0 with our goalie Paul pulling off some fantastic saves, one in particular tipping the ball over from almost point blank range. Shortly after that it was all us, and it wasn’t long before our right back turned striker Ricardo netted to make it 1-1.

We were all over Sneyd but it was looking like one of those days as Dave (last times stand in blogger) missed chance after glorious chance; we went in at half time 1-1.

We started the second half as we had finished the first, all over Sneyd and after a good cross from the right the ball hit Dave looping over the goalkeeper into the back of the net. You could almost see the relief in the team and Sneyd did not get another chance upfront. After a long ball Ricardo scored his sixth goal in two games - then finally Jesse couldn’t miss with a header after a wonderfully directed cross by me.

One of the highlights of my season was our right midfielder’s goal celebrations, no matter how good the goal he scored he would go absolutely mental, he has even been known to jump in the “crowd”. However when anyone else scores he tells us all to concentrate and to get our heads on the game.

Other highlights include Paul Smith’s 40 yard free kick against Evergreen in the last minute to make it 4-4. Our 5-5 draw with Beachcroft after being 5-1 down. Our 3-0 win over Evergreen. Oh, and of course all of my (3) goals were brilliant.

What a fantastic end to the season, I would rather have a full season of struggle and have an end like that than have a season of mid-table mediocrity. It was like we had won the cup or got promotion, when all we had done was avoid relegation but I wonder if the league will have the guts to relegate Sneyd.

God knows what I’m going to do over the summer; I’m already getting withdrawal symptoms.

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