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Emerhorns 2 - Woodhurst 7
Independent Sunday League
Goodmayes Park, Sunday 21st March 04
A four-goal show from Andrew Sheppard helped Woodhurst on their way to a 7-2 victory bringing the League Championship back to Parmiters.
A week after their semi-final triumph in a wind-swept Harold Hill, an equally blustery - but dreadfully bobbly - Goodmayes Park saw Sheppard return to the line-up and get Woodhurst's championship party started as four big names (McShea, Bashford, Hughes and Ladbury) were missing from the 6-1 win seven days earlier.
Profiting from a goalkeeping error, the number 10 was alert to roll home Jamie Bradbury's pass that trickled through the keeper's legs. He made it 2-0 before the break, when he drove home from inside the six yard box. Jason Fullerton's long-ball looked a lost cause as it headed out of play, but following good-work from Nigel Jordon to keep the ball live, his looping cross caused problems for the Emerhorns defence who could only watch, and appeal to the ref, when the Ilford lad sent the ball into the net.
Emerhorns had their chances in the opening forty-five, latching onto a couple of defensive errors, but just couldn't make it count. Their closest came when a long-ball out-foxed the leap of Clifford and only a fine one-handed stop from Tom Gray prevented the lob shot from going in.
Though it should have been all over at that point, Emerhorns found themselves handed a life-line early in the second-half when Gray up-ended the home striker in what was a very hard 18-yard box. The Emerhorns number 9, and Dario Silva looky-likey, despatched for 2-1.
But today was the day that Sheppard was to herd in the goals and clinch the title. But if his third goal, coming quickly after the penalty, was fortuitous his fourth was sublime and rounded of a fine individual display to, hopefully (!), put to bed the demons of previous weeks.
Finding space from an inside pass, he lofted the ball goalward from the edge of the box around the goalkeeper, but as team-mates turned to prepare for a goal-kick, the ball took a bizarre bobble helping into the goal off the upright. In fact, it was the woodwork that had the final say on his fourth too, a lovely cross from Probert found its way to the edge of the box and the magnetic chest of the boy Sheppard and with his second touch he sent a volley brushing the underside of the bar and into the saggy, well-used, wind ravaged net.
Now, as the editor of these pages was calling for Jan Souleyman to weigh in with a strike to provide a ready-made headline, the Turkish terror duly obliged. Having earlier booted the drinks bottle holder after realising he'd forgotten to record the Hollyoaks omnibus, 'Big Dog' Souleyman was back to his best, bewitching the Emerhorns defence with some nifty footwork. But it was a routine piece of opportunism that handed him his goal to make it 5-1 when a mis-controlled ball inside the box fell kindly at his feet. Souleyman drilled home like a man possessed. Souleyman is a man possessed.
Number six was another cracker, but only Jordon, who delivered it, will know if he really meant it. After a change of referees, the 'official' stand-in for the absent appointment had finally arrived, though his head appeared to still be with the Millwall-West Ham game at the Den, Jordon finally got his name on the score-sheet. He'd already seen one, quite legitimate, effort disallowed - the linesman was obviously not fully aware of the offside law - maybe he's a lady? However, Jordon had put that to the back of his mind when he collected Sheppard's pass on the corner of the box and bent it with the outside of his foot into the top corner of the goal.
The wind caused problems to Woodhurst too, as they found difficulty in judging the flight of the ball, and one particular occasion, close to the visitor's goal, gave Emerhorns a second 'consolation' strike.
But the Hurst ended on a high. Some fine football working towards the Emerhorns area eventually ended in the back of the net once more as Bradbury's left-foot shot from 15 yards deflected past the 'keeper who would have even had difficulty catching a cold in the chilly breeze. But despite his haplessness, the bald stopper had a Sunday to remember when he came to the rescue saving a penalty that would have been the Hurst's eight.
Souleyman's ball into the feet of Bradbury allowed him to turn rapidly, for a big man, inside the box. Yet again, a clumsy challenge came in, and this one gave the referee no other choice than pointing to the spot. Arguments over who was going to take it then followed, but the task of rolling into the net was handed to Jensson Clifford, yet to open his Woodhurst account. However, the defender was obviously in a charitable mood as he opted to pass the ball back to the 'keeper who by now had had enough of retrieving the size five from the net.
Nevertheless, Woodhurst were celebrating when the referee blew for time, and the league Trophy was heading back down Nelson Road to its adopted parents, Woodhurst FC.
Afterwards, Roy Lawley was pleased with his team's performance and was delighted to collect his first piece of silverware since taking hold of the reigns.
"They were well up for it today and came out to hurt us early," he said.
"But we played well in very difficult conditions and after taking control of the game in the first half, we battered them in the second.
"I especially enjoyed my morning. With a hangover I had to run the line using one of the Emerhorns lad's t-shirts as a flag. Now that's what I call organisation."
Team
1 Tom Gray
2 Jason Fullerton
3 Tony Taylor (c)
4 Simon Probert
5 Alex Alexander
6 Jenssen Clifford
7 Kofi Owusu
8 Nigel Jordon
9 Jamie Bradbury
10 Andrew Sheppard
11 Jan Souleyman
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