Oxfordshire FA - Charity Cup
Round 1
Horspath 2 Chalgrove 4
Saturday, 22 September 2012
Horspath: Paul Cooper, Rhys Veal
Chalgrove: Simon Godfrey (2), James Quainton, Tim Cox
Saturday mornings are for the gentlemen footballers of Horspath the stuff of dreams, the field of dreams for this particular team of course the fabulous Pressed Steel, but that’s not an options any longer so we play opposite on whatever its called, we don’t talk about it. The pitch however was more than adequate, neat short felt like green tundra conducive to a short tika-take style of football. The dream for the visitors was cup glory, the age old underdog type, real Roy of the Rovers stuff……………. to knock out a team in a league above.
The Charlgrove team talk obviously revolved around a Dad’s Army, Jonsey style “this lot are in the league above us they don’t like it up ‘um”, to be fair the team must have listened because within the first 30 seconds their No.4 clattered victim for the day Paul Flack, at any other point in the game a foul worthy of a possible straight red, the incident went unpunished other than a free kick. When the same happened not five minutes later with the same players, the same punishment was meated out, the Horspath bench up in arms but the referee maintained a blasé indifference. It was no surprise when our victim of the piece was taken down in the area with little more than a subtle movement of an eyebrow from the man in black.
Charlgrove are though capable of football, they played decent stuff thru the midfield and had constant joy down the left flank which Horspath's makeshift team of firsts and reserves struggled to cope. Their football was rewarded with the opening goal thru Simon Godfrey (not a Dad’s Army reference that’s his real name). The response was two goals thru Horspath’s own old boy Paul Cooper, always a class act finding the net for the first closely followed Rhys Veal. The quick double taking them two goals to one to the good into the half time interval.
Football however is a funny old game and never more so than the cup, Horspath had a number of opportunities and huge penalty shout to seal victory. It wasn’t to be as the next goals all followed from Charlgrove thru a second from Simon “Private” Godfrey, James “Mainwaring” Quainton and Tim “Walker” Cox. Horspath learning that the game is never in the bag until the fat ladies sings or in this case the referee blows. To their credit Charlgrove are a good team that played good football and deserved to go thru to the next round where they may well surprise a few.
They even came back to the boozer for sandwiches and chips which were not remotely rationed.