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Roy Lawley's Woodhurst draw with a Gidea Park side including four Hurst men. |
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Woodhurst |
4-4 |
Gidea Park Rangers |
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Jimmy Woodham 2, Patrick Ladbury, Nigel Jordon |
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Ibekwem 2, Gidea Park player, Another Gidea Park player |
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Parmiters Sports Ground
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11.00am, Sunday 11th September 2005 |
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Friendly |
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Referee: Peter Baker
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It was a very friendly affair at Parmiters for Woodhurst's final preparation game before the new season kicks off as only six Gidea Park players showed up.
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Roy Lawley provided four of his packed Woodhurst side to make it ten against ten and, though tthe game was not of much technical benefit, it gave 14 of the Hurst's large squad a chance to break sweat. Read midfielder Jan Souleyman's reprt from the game...
This year, Woodhurst's usual pre-season training camp in Valencia had been replaced by a game against six-man Gidea Park Rangers. To even the sides up the Ibekwem borthers Chidi and Eric, Simon P and new-recruit Mike Sogga had the honours to don the yellow shirts of the hapless Gidea Park.
It started with 10 vs 10 as both sides had players on wedding, holiday, sleep duty. The two former Independent Sunday League rivals probed for the first 15 minutes but lacked any real cutting edge in front of goal, even though numerous chances presented themselves.
After 20 mins, a foul outside the Gidea box was taken quickly and Jimmy Woodham, with the usual finesse of a tap dancing buffalo, let loose. The ball took a wicked deflection off the unlucky Gidea defender and span into the net. 1-0 to the Woodhurst, a song we hope to be hearing more of.
The second goal came quickly, courtesy of some surging runs by Patrick 'I can run all day' Ladbury. Woodhurst were cruising - and as we know cruising is usually done in second gear.
The fightback from Gidea was inevitable with the Brothers Ibekwem and young Probert leading the charge against their own Woodhurst side. Also there was a guy called Dave who took pot shots from everywhere, much to Tom Gray's amusement. Then disaster struck as a mix up in the defence led to a Gidea goal, Gray calling late as Jenssen Clifford diverted a cross into his own goal.
After this I'm not sure what happened but two glorious goals were scored; one from the older Ibekwem brother Chidi, who produced a top corner curler - which is probably a contender for goal of the season (the game was halted for 10 mins due to players fainting at the sight of a Chidi goal). Then Nigel Jordan spun just into the opponent's half and put a glorious shot past the Gidea Park keeper after accelerating away from the defence. Very nice indeed.
By now Woodhurst were physically tiring and began to get more and more stretched by the visitors. On came Roy 'Jose' Lawley in super tight shorts to stem the tide. The tactic of putting opponents off by showing your twig and berries didn't work and Gidea promptly nicked another leaving the game at 4-4.
A good showing from both sides and now for the real deal next sunday in Woodhurst first game of the season, and in their history, in the Corinthian Premier Division.
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Team
Tom Gray
Jenssen Clifford
Sean Kelly
Patrick Ladbury (Roy Lawley)
Kevin Blacoe
Kofi Owusu
Nigel Jordon
Jamie Bradbury
Jimmy Woodham
Jan Souleyman
Playing for Gidea Park
Simon Probert
Eric Ibekwem
Chidi Ibekwem
Mike Sogga
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Tom Gray
