A Charles Dickens story at the Stad – A Tale of Two Penalties

There was a well-deserved week off for the first team following the triumphant visit to Gillingham. A week of rest, a week of reflection, for a trip to the races perhaps, an opportunity for Si to top up his tan or for Chapman to come up with more brown nose comments to ensure he gets a starting place. That week came and went and sure enough along came Westlands to the Stad, high flying and looking to maintain their top 6 spot.
Yet again there were some changes to the Cobham side. The two most surprising being the exclusion of two of the most consistent performers of recent months, Tim Vukcevic and Simon Hallam, even with Tucks away revising at a library in North London there wasn’t even a place on the bench for the golden school teacher.
This meant that Rob Cotton came back in along side Chapman and Allen at the back, Scott Hole regained his place in the centre of midfield with Goodbody and Merrell, consequently pushing Jude Law out to left wing-back and Vucks onto the bench. There was also a first start in Cobham colours for Dan Payne after impressing when he came on against Gillingham.
The matched kicked off and within minutes, the Yeovil side were pressurising. Yet clear cut opportunities were cut to a minimum largely thanks to Allen’s Franz Beckenbaur like reading of the game, Cotton’s Bobby Moore like defending and Chapman’s Michelin Man like physique. As in previous weeks, Cobham looked dangerous on the break and on numerous occasions the probing runs of Gunn, Hole and Law just lacked the quality of the final ball to actually trouble the Westlands ‘keeper.
Then 35 minutes into an uneventful first half, the referee decided to liven things up a bit. A cross was floated into the Cobham box from the left wing and following the air-kick by the Westlands scrawny striker in which he landed on his rear end, the referee blew for a penalty, much to the bemusement of all on the pitch and all in the stands, but Westlands weren’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Up stepped the captain 1-0. He ran back to the half way line in celebration – he was alone. This was because everyone else had heard the referee blow for a re-take as half the Westlands team were in front of the taker as he struck the ball. Not to worry though, there’s one in every team, Cobham have Mawer, it’s just Westlands have the misfortune of having made their village idiot their skipper. With egg very much on his West Country face he trudged all the way back to the Cobham box to re-take it. He placed it into the other side of the net and the score in fact remained 1-0 this time. Goodbody even picked up a booking in the following fracas trying to explain to the simpletons from out west why the penalty had to be re-taken – apparently there is more than one in the Westlands side.
This seemed to spark the home side into life and immediately applied the pressure with some intricate one touch passing through the midfield which eventually led to Captain Carthorse feeding Gunnsy the 8th Dwarf down the right hand side. His delightful cross was delicately controlled by Mawer, who turned two defenders and forced a decent save from the visiting ‘keeper. Half Time.
1-0.
Cobham started the second half with a point to prove, they’d beaten the team 4th in the league away from home on their last outing and weren’t going to let this weak Westlands side undo all off G’s hard fought cone laying out. Goodbody had a few pot shots that went close, and a few crosses that were closer to the top corner than anyone in a Cobham shirt. Mawer had a few efforts that lacked power, Westlands were on the defensive. Then it happened; Chapman took the bull by the horns, he wanted in on the action. He gathered up all remaining energy and in the 60th minute set off from half way to add weight to the attack, by the 64th minute he’d reached the edge of the box when the ball was pulled back to him following a corner, he saw his name in lights. As the ball dropped, so did everyone’s jaw as they saw him take a swing. He then unleashed what can only be described as the softest daisy cutter of the season as his feeble attempt went predictably slow and wide. Cobham’s main concern now was whether or not he could get back in time before Westlands launched an attack, after all there was only 25 minutes left!
A few moments later Cobham pulled level with yet another mystery penalty decision. Gunn played the ball down the line to Goodbody’s feet who whipped in a first time cross to Mawer who was briefly touched by the centre back as he leapt for the ball. No appeal from anyone but yet again, penalty.
Not wanting to be out done by his younger, fitter opposite number Merrell picked up the ball and drilled the ball home from the spot with pin point accuracy into the bottom left corner of the net just out of the reach of the despairing dive of the goalie. 1-1. And more impressively – a cleanly struck penalty form the Cobham skipper. Although Cobham kept the heat on the Westlands goal they never really did enough to win it. And short of a few glaring misses from Mawer and once or twice where their top scorer chose to shoot from an incredibly acute angle instead of pulling it back to Payne, didn’t look like capitalising on all their dominance. Westlands however do deserve some credit as they forced Higgy into his first save since the 3-1 reverse to Ham Rec on his debut.
Final Score1-1