Jokers 4 – 5 HSE
Market Road
4 September 2005
Team: Linter, Keen, Vere, O’Loughlin; Read, Hyde, Joseph; Seaton-Smith, Gamson.
Scorers: Joseph, Gamson (3).
The Jokers put the ‘pre-‘ in ‘pre-season’ yesterday, as they crashed to defeat against a Health and Safety Executive team they had beaten 4-1, 7-2 and 2-1 in previous encounters in a nine-a-side match at Market Road. A string of withdrawals (including 3 on the day) meant that only 7 Jokers were on show and forced the team into borrowing two of the opposition’s players, Alan 'Triangle feet' and Joseph, to even up the sides. Even so, most, if not all, of the home side’s players would expect to line-up for the first League match of the season. The lack of any strikers and the absence of Milner in midfield were to be telling factors. Nevertheless, if the team are to gain anything from this season’s campaign, they will need a much-improved performance.
Jokers were soon one down on a hot day. With plenty of space on the pitch this was to be an exhausting encounter for many of the Jokers, who seemed to have bought in to the controversial David James school of big-match preparation. An equalizer from Gamson soon followed after he was set free after a neat passing move between Read and Seaton-Smith, but the side soon found themselves another goal behind, only to equalize once more, a cross from Joseph on the right sailing over the keeper’s head to land in the net.
Half-time arrived at 2-2. This was to be as good as it got. In the second half, HSE retook the lead and then scored at regular intervals (including a penalty after Vere bundled over a striker in the box) to establish a 5-2 advantage. Jokers staged a revival of sorts with Gamson scoring from an acute angle and then firing into an empty net to reduce the arrears to 5-4, to complete one of the worst hat-tricks ever to grace Market Road. However, this was too little too late and HSE ran out deserved winners.
To add insult to injury, the number of no-shows led to escalating match costs and the team had to pay 8 pounds each for the pleasure of being made to look a bunch of unfit chancers. There will need to be a vast improvement for next week’s encounter with Div. 1 runners-up Press Association. 11 players would be a start.