Nine men and a lady lined up for Angels on a Sunday afternoon as the team played their first ever friendly. Stalker Pete's team "Ghetto Superstars" provided the opposition in what was to become a memorable encounter.
New captain Liddell (loaned tha hallowed armband by Marrs) (Tonkin was "high as a kite" on the beach) saw Angels start well - Yarrow provided a surprise by not railing anyone that badly for the entire game and in the first minute came an embarrassing moment for one of the Ghetto midfielders when Yarrow performed a subtle sidestep and skinned him!!! Sadly the move came to nothing.
Angels were dominating however and shots by Marrs (2) and Tricky dribbled wide without troubling the keeper. With about 15 minutes gone, the first Gheto attack ended ion a shock goal against the Angels - McKirdy had not touched the ball and was helpless as he saw the ball fly into the net - to be fair if he had reproduced his dancing form of the previous night he may have pulled off a fluke save!
Angels were not going to be beaten by their hangovers hwoever, and a pass from Pete Hutch soon found Tricky one on one with the Ghetto keeper - for once Tricky gave the keeper no chance and it was 1-1. Gheto restored their lead shortly afterwards after a freak cross looped over Goalie Tom and into the net - 2-1 and Tom had hardly had a touch!
Angels drew level close to half time - Hutchison's searching pass found Marrs, who turned and shrugged off Stalker Pete and made no mistake with a cool finish off the right hand post. Angels were level and deservedly so.
Angels took the lead before half time in bizarre fashion with possibly the best own goal ever seen in Sunday League football (even better than Finlay's!!!) - as Marrs broke into the box and squared for Hutchison on the six yard line, a defender stabbed the ball clear, only for "Julian" (of Ghettot Superstars") to steam in with a finish to the top corner than would make Roberto Carlos proud. The spectacular own goal meant Angels led at half time.
The second half was a tighter affair, with Jesper and Mike Steel doing all they sould to keep Angels on top in midfield. One Ghetto Superstar named Charlie was causing problems, but resilient defening by the Iron Curtain of Johnny, Stew and Nick Yarrow meant the oposition were restricted to poor attempts on goal. Indeed, "Charlie" was given his comeuppance late in the second half when he was skinned by a lovely piece of skill from Jolanda, making her first starting appearance for the Angels.
The boys in black secured their win close to full time when the keeper could only parry Hutchison's shot, and it looped over him into the net - a goal Hutchison deserved given his fine performance - 2 assists, 1 goal!
Full time came and Angels had worked hard for but deserved the victory, making Liddell the only Angels captain ever to start with a win - hopefully Tonkin can follow suit when he finally makes his captaincy bow. All in all a fine send off to some Angels stalwarts and a fine win given the one player defecit. Liddell and Tonkin can only hope to build on this performance for the new season in 2004-05.