Impossible to believe as it may be, LCDC player
/ manager Samuel Knowles didn't receive a single card on Valentines Day last Saturday. I'm sure the postman must have been
off sick, but never mind, he got three on Sunday.... two yellows and a red from referee P Watts as La Chiesa's three match
winning streak came to a crashing halt with a five goal defeat at Clayhall Park. (PS Mr Watts isn't his type - not butch enough)
La Chiesa's recent improvement had a lot to do with being able
to use substitutes when players were tiring, so it was disappointing to see just the bare eleven turn up at The Chequers car
park for the 9.15 meet. Is there another team in the league that has too many players at training, but not enough on
a sunday morning, I wonder?
Right from the off, LC/DC were under the cosh. Astra were clearly
still smarting from the 4-3 defeat they suffered at Coopers in January, and for the first quarter of an hour they pinned
the visitors in their own half, forcing a succession of corners and throw ins that La Chiesa did well to defend. LC/DC's first
attack came when Iain Gay worked the ball to Knowles on the right, and his cross was volleyed just
wide by Matt Gillham. It wasn't long before Astra took the lead though, a shot from the right hand side of the penalty
area took a deflection and seemed to be heading wide, before Solomon Martin popped up to tap the ball in from close range.
Soon after came the incident that changed the course of the match.
As Astra midfielder Terry Clayton was running with the ball
inside the centre circle, Knowles clipped his heels in attempt to nick it from him. Play continued and when the move broke
down on the edge of the area, the referee gave a free kick to Astra for the incident. Amazingly, he then reached for his notebook. Knowles,
as surprised as anyone who saw the incident, asked what he was being booked for - it was as innocuous tackle as you will
see, especially by sunday morning standards - and was told for both the tackle and dissent. As he ran back to defend the free
kick, Knowles rolled his studs over the ball, moving it about a foot closer to La Chiesa's goal. The referee then astounded
all in attendance by producing a second yellow followed by a red for the LC/DC gaffer, as well as booking striker Adam
Jeffers for dissent, and it was backs against the wall time for the remaining sixty five minutes or so. It's fair to say if
yellow cards were issued for every incident this minor, twenty two players would be dismissed per match, and it says something
that the Astra players even offered to back Knowles up with any appeal against the decision. He did himself no favours
though, by barracking the incompetent official from the sidelines, under restraint from Director of Football, and Dad , Dave
Knowles, before getting changed into his managers outfit for the half time team talk.
If anything, La Chiesa improved for the rest of the first half,
no doubt spurred on by a sense of injustice, and Matt Gillham, now playing in a lone striker role, had an excellent chance
to level things up just before the break when he took the ball well in his stride and lifted his shot over keeper Danny Binns,
only to see it drop the wrong side of the post.
At half time the score was 1-0 to Astra, and it remained that
way until inside the last twenty minutes thanks to some strong defending by the two Marks, Harris & Ede, and Terry
Soteriou, as well as the non stop graft of Gay, Jon Gray and Jeffers who didn't give the home side any time or space
to play. Of course there was the obligatory breathtaking save from keeper Danny Hardwick, this time tipping a header from
Clayton wide when everybody had assumed it was already in to keep the score at 1-0 and the game alive. Chances for La Chiesa
were few and far between although Gillham did have one more opportunity, a difficult chance on the volley that went wide.
Referee Watts had already made his mark on the game with the
ridiculous red card that made the sides uneven, but he almost topped it with the most bizarre penalty award in history, which
gave the floodgates that final push they needed to open. It is almost impossible to describe the incident that led to
the penalty being given as no player from either side, when asked after the match, had any idea why it was given! Suffice
to say that everybody was preparing for an Astra corner when they noticed Watts pointing to the spot, and Hardwicks
100% record on penalties was under threat. No miracles this time as Martin slotted the ball home to make it 2-0. Before
long it was 3-0, and Martin had his hat trick when despite claims by LC/DC for handball in the build up, obviously ignored,
he was let in to fire past Hardwick for the third time.
Then came another gaffe by Watts. Straight from the centre,
Chiesa's Colin Williams noticed Binns off his line and fired a dipping shot at goal. Williams is a fearome striker of a football,
and his attempt struck the underside of the crossbar, clearly bounced over the line, then back into Binns'
arms. Binns was cursing, Astra's players were moaning, La Chiesa's were celebrating, but then you have to factor in the Watts
element - he wasn't going to allow La Chiesa the slightest bit of enjoyment from this match and waved play on, denying Williams
the greatest goal that any LC/DC player will ever score. You must really hate football to disallow such a great
effort. The pedantic official was rewarded minutes later when Junior Francis, who was a constant danger at Coopers, took
the ball round Hardwick and made it four. Hardwick took this as a sign to light up a B&H and when he brought down the
attacker clean through on goal with seconds remaining you feared he was going to be sent off as well, but obviously
Mr Watts considers moving the ball a yard and a players first foul of the match much more serious than a professional foul,
and no card was produced. Hardwick was prepared to lean on the post and let it in, so farcical had the officiating of the
match rendered it, but he stood up to be counted when goalkeeper Binns raced down to take the penalty, as Hardwick
had done in the return fixture. It was the same result, a goal for the goalkeeper, 5-0 to Astra.
Even before the red card madness, it is fair to say that Astra
were the better side, and it may not have made as much difference to the result as it did the scoreline. In the end,
a five goal defeat was tough on the ten men that were left on the pitch as they didn't deserve such a hammering for all
their hard work. All that can be done is to draw a line under this result and start again with a battling dislpay against
second in the table May & Bakers next week. Let us just hope we don't park our cars on any yellow lines while Mr Watts
is about in the near future - in the unlikely event of him not being a traffic warden, I'm sure he would do his utmost to
find one and let them know!
LCDC; (4-4-2) D Hardwick; Harris, Ede, Soteriou, Williams;Gray,
Knowles, Gay, B Gillham; Jeffers; M Gillham
Tarjeta Amarillas - Knowles, Jeffers
Tarjeta Roja - Knowles
