DBFC Vets 1 – 0 Spartans Marsters

Wednesday 8th May 2019 at HKIS playing field with 20:30 KO

Squad: Bradders(GK) Morse (Captain), Juggsy, Simon, Baz, Pat, Ben, Ariel, Resco, Fella and Scotty.

Scorer: Scott Holmes.

This win must rank alongside the recent “against all odds” wins in the Champions League by Liverpool and Tottenham in the last few days.

A congestion of football fixtures in the various Hong Kong leagues, Soccer Sevens selection training and the usual injuries, business trips and work commitments made the recruitment of 11 players for this fixture extremely difficult. The rain and the thought of a long journey to Hong Kong International School playing field did not help. However, 11 likely lads were found and they turned up to play out of their skins to come away with a win in a game of footy that will go down in DBFC history has one of the great heroic performances.

The situation didn’t look too good at the beginning of this game, with the constant drizzly rain and only 10 men available at kick-off. So Baz Brown (gaffer for the night) organised a 4-4-1 formation, which after 10 mins went to 4-5-1 when the late arriving Fela had done some warm ups, and gave instructions to defend and hit on the counter. This strategy worked well and although Spartans dominated play, DBFC defended with commitment and Dave Bradley (Bradders) was inspiration in goal and DBFC counter attacking football looked threatening. It was DBFC that got the goal after another Spartans attack was broken down and Morse sent a long pass down the left flank for Fela to get on the end of. Fela controlled and turned the ball into Resco who then fired it forward to Scott Holmes, who had streaked through to the back post area, to collect and drill a low drive into the far corner to make it 1-0 up after 25 minutes. DBFC came under pressure from Spartans looking for an immediate equaliser but the boys held strong and maintained their lead at half-time.

The second half started, continued and finished with Spartans throwing everything at the DBFC goal. The star that shone brightest was Bradders in goal but all other DBFC stars sparkled with some brave and heroic defending. The boys reckoned Spartans had at least 20 corner kicks in the second half! DBFC’s strategy of counter attacking football fell by the wayside as tired legs took their toll and all the lads dropped into defensive positions to fight the “Battle of the Alamo” ——- and the brave / magnificent eleven won!

MOM: David (Gordon Banks) Bradley ——- nothing to explain other than he played 80 minutes of continuous saves, some of which beggared belief.

DOD: All of the DBFC Vets players that made themselves unavailable for this game.