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YC&AC, Sun 15th January. A double from dead ball specialist Joe Takeda was just about enough to see off the spirited challenge of the Geckoes on a cow of a YCAC pitch at lunchtime on Sunday.
An upset looked on the cards from the get go. Contrast the 40 minutes of enthusiastic warm up by the Geckoes squad with the last minute arrival of the 10th YCAC player and the cap in hand borrowing of 2 second teamers just finishing their own fixture.
Surprisingly though it was YCAC out of the blocks quicker and they created a number of openings as the Geckoes defenders slithered in the mud. The home team shaded the 1st half but only had a Takeda penalty to show for it after James Absolom was upended by the Geckoes Defensive Linebacker. A flag on the play, 12 yard penalty for unnecessary roughness and it was 1-0 as the YCAC special teams unit did its job.
The 2H was an evenly matched affair but YCAC looked to have things sewn up when Joe Takeda smashed a 25 yard free kick into the far corner of the net from a seemingly impossible angle. As is their wont, though, YCAC failed to pad the lead and kill off the opposition completely. Rather more unusual was the fact that the opposition managed to score past Gary Hodgson in the YCAC goal. With his old man having to come all the way from Sunderland to see a decent team play, Hodgson Minor was left helpless by a cracking drive from the corner of his penalty area. 2-1 and it would end that way.
YCAC survived a scare as an equaliser was disallowed for offside causing much consternation in the Geckoes camp. The dissension was relatively good natured to their credit but did rumble on for a fair few hours amongst a knot of the visitors camped outside the YCAC Bar. They will at least be gratified to know that resulting record takings will offset the linesmans medical expenses for treatment for hyperextension of his flag arm.
Report - S Taw
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