Game day
It was all for the jersey and the pride of the parish! Well, not quite but myself and the lads did want to win the tournament scheduled for today. In fairness to the college, they had pulled out all the stops for the annual sports day. We had the pitch marked and new nets put up. They even filled in the gaping holes at one end of the pitch. We had to remove a Puff Adder from the netball court but we couldn’t pull down the tree so the girls had to play around that!
We were all set for a day of fun, passion, pride, ambition and above all else hope. There were medals to be won and we weren’t messing around! We played the first games and won convincingly with a few goals to spare and then we came to the final. The other team works in the Kruger National Park and they were certainly looking the part. They had a full set of jerseys anyway. The shorts and socks were a bonus. We didn’t even have a full set of jerseys so subs had to wear sweat soaked jerseys from a team mate. Not very hygienic and it reminded me of my early career playing outside right with Castleknock Celtic. At least back then we were given oranges at half time.
The heat was starting to get to me. It was tipping over the forty C mark and I was more inclined to stay at right back strangely enough. There was a big Marula tree casting a lovely big shadow there for me. Unfortunately I kept playing their forwards on side by standing there though and I wasn’t flavour of the month with the sweeper. We played well though. It was tough and competitive. I got a few nice belts for myself. Mind you I was putting my head into situations where my foot should have been. Some things don’t change! We had a few chances that we missed by inches and in the end there was nothing between the two teams. We had to decide the match on penalties. I volunteered and up I stepped and planted the ball in the bottom corner. One nil and the advantage with us. Up stepped the captain next and he struck it well into the top corner. We were going quite nicely thank you very much. We watched as the next lad walked up to the ball and sometimes you can tell when the person lacks the conviction. We missed that shot and the following one and the dream was over. No picture in the paper and no victory dance for the crowd. Everyone was genuinely gutted.
There are sometimes silver linings though and ours was the winning team buying us a few beers. Thanks very much lads! We ended doing what only men who have been through the heat of battle know how to do best. We got Banana’s! ( Borrowed that from Craig Kilmurray )
It was all for the jersey and the pride of the parish! Well, not quite but myself and the lads did want to win the tournament scheduled for today. In fairness to the college, they had pulled out all the stops for the annual sports day. We had the pitch marked and new nets put up. They even filled in the gaping holes at one end of the pitch. We had to remove a Puff Adder from the netball court but we couldn’t pull down the tree so the girls had to play around that!
We were all set for a day of fun, passion, pride, ambition and above all else hope. There were medals to be won and we weren’t messing around! We played the first games and won convincingly with a few goals to spare and then we came to the final. The other team works in the Kruger National Park and they were certainly looking the part. They had a full set of jerseys anyway. The shorts and socks were a bonus. We didn’t even have a full set of jerseys so subs had to wear sweat soaked jerseys from a team mate. Not very hygienic and it reminded me of my early career playing outside right with Castleknock Celtic. At least back then we were given oranges at half time.
The heat was starting to get to me. It was tipping over the forty C mark and I was more inclined to stay at right back strangely enough. There was a big Marula tree casting a lovely big shadow there for me. Unfortunately I kept playing their forwards on side by standing there though and I wasn’t flavour of the month with the sweeper. We played well though. It was tough and competitive. I got a few nice belts for myself. Mind you I was putting my head into situations where my foot should have been. Some things don’t change! We had a few chances that we missed by inches and in the end there was nothing between the two teams. We had to decide the match on penalties. I volunteered and up I stepped and planted the ball in the bottom corner. One nil and the advantage with us. Up stepped the captain next and he struck it well into the top corner. We were going quite nicely thank you very much. We watched as the next lad walked up to the ball and sometimes you can tell when the person lacks the conviction. We missed that shot and the following one and the dream was over. No picture in the paper and no victory dance for the crowd. Everyone was genuinely gutted.
There are sometimes silver linings though and ours was the winning team buying us a few beers. Thanks very much lads! We ended doing what only men who have been through the heat of battle know how to do best. We got Banana’s! ( Borrowed that from Craig Kilmurray )
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