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Finchley Central

Another welcome match report from the SW19 international media bureau. Incidentally, if you want to join such a highly regarded (?) organisation, please don’t hesitate to get on the mailing list

Anyway, here’s the Wingate report….


As it was my 250th game in a row, REPD pissed me off (SW19 note: hey, you offered…) gave me the honour of reporting on Half Inch(ley) 3 Robbed 2. Now, we weren’t robbed as such but, had we fielded a stronger side, we would have comfortably won and now be looking forward to a home quarter final against Tooting and Mitcham. And that pisses me off.

Okay, so I knew that we would be fielding an under strength side, and it looks like the youngsters playing will need to strengthen up a bit themselves if they had any dreams of making an impact in the first team this season, and I knew that our record in this competition isn’t amazing, but apparently this was our ‘first team’ county cup competition this year, i.e. taking it as seriously as we did in the Surrey last season.

I might have been listening to completely the wrong people about this but, if true, we should have been able to put out a stronger side and saved playing all these non first-teamers for when we played Ash next week.

A brief look at the sides left in the competition* would have made anyone feel confident that we could have gone all the way and won it at Bromley… actually, fuck it, well done Dave for putting out a weak side.

*Disclaimer: I haven’t actually looked at the teams left in the competition but they’re probably rubbish.

Anyway, enough with that garbage and on with the stuff you really want to read about…

Plus Points: Beasant, Paris, Connery and King looked half descent but need quite a few more ‘adult’ games before they’ll be able to make a real impact on the first team.

Minus Points: Losing. Waiting fucking ages for a tube home. Freezing.

The Referee’s a: Cunt? He stopped the game at every chance he got, failed to let Niall Connery come back on after treatment for at least a minute and denied us probably two good penalty shouts in the first half. At least he pulled his hamstring before the start of extra time.

Them: Cunts? Well, that’s what their goalkeeper said to our chav fans behind the goal after saving a pen that the referee did give. Gave the finger to them as well. Nice bloke.

Truth is stranger than fiction: After about five minutes they had a net-busting shot. Literally. It took a step ladder and a 4 minute delay to fix it after the 4’ groundsman ran out and realised he couldn’t reach the top of the post to reattach the net to the goal frame.

So, was it worth it: Only for Harvey’s cross which fell on Smeltz’s head. Great goal.

In a nutshell: At least we can now concentrate on the League. And the FA Trophy. And the Surrey Senior Cup. And the Ryman League Cup.