Sutton 5-1 Gloucester A by Robert de Niro
Gloucester’s A Squad was well beaten in south London by a Sutton side that dominated possession and passed the ball well throughout on an excellent 3G surface at Carshalton Boys College. The well appointed changing rooms however were violated by some rather poor grammar on the sports board, leaving one to hope that the rugby coach’s skill sessions were somewhat superior to his command of basic sentence formation.
When the game got underway, Troke was forced into an early save from Easthope before pushing away an effort from Buckley, but the hosts claimed the lead soon afterwards thanks to a fine finish from Bolger.
With Gloucester overrun in midfield the city defence was under continual pressure, but Weir-Roberts in particular turned in an excellent individual performance in attempting to stem the tide. The self-styled Canute though was powerless to prevent first Taylor and then Degand adding further goals for the hosts, though when Richards neatly brought the ball out of defence and played in Jenner for another excellent finish, it was the centre back’s third assist in as many games and Gloucester were back in the tie.
With the breeze at their backs after the interval the visitors spent most of the first fifteen minutes of the second period in the Sutton half, though Jenner’s opportunist left foot drive which fizzed just past the far post was the closest they came to reducing the deficit. The hard-working Townsend however tested the Sutton keeper and Pledger’s left wing cross flashed across the face of the goal with no-one able to get the decisive touch as the city side continued to press.
With twelve minutes remaining though Bolger netted his second of the day and some lacklustre (non)-tackling allowed Ajao the opportunity to net number five to complete a comprehensive victory for the hosts.
The return journey was embellished by an hour’s swimming at The Oasis Leisure Centre in Swindon and the post-pool gathering by Townsend’s remarkable mastery of mental maths. His ability to cerebrally add, subtract and multiply fractions of different denominators and eruditely explain his thinking was a joy to behold and earned him 40p prize money into the bargain. Other members of the squad were not so enthusiastic however, beating a hasty retreat to the popcorn machine as soon as they heard any suggestions of the word ‘algebra’.
It’s a strange word, ‘Enjoyment’. Get up, fill up with diesel, drive to London, lose 1-5, drive to Swindon, sit in a leisure centre cafe, drive back, watch people return borrowed money to Bas but not yourself, clean out the vehicle, drop the bus off in Quedgeley, drop the key off in Matson, get home 13 hours and 34 minutes after leaving. No doubt if it was RDN in the 1976 epic, ‘Taxi Driver’, he’d have left the meter running. C’est la vie.
Gloucester: Troke; Weir-Roberts, Richards, Hylton; Coldridge, Gore, Townsend, Pledger; Jenner.
When the game got underway, Troke was forced into an early save from Easthope before pushing away an effort from Buckley, but the hosts claimed the lead soon afterwards thanks to a fine finish from Bolger.
With Gloucester overrun in midfield the city defence was under continual pressure, but Weir-Roberts in particular turned in an excellent individual performance in attempting to stem the tide. The self-styled Canute though was powerless to prevent first Taylor and then Degand adding further goals for the hosts, though when Richards neatly brought the ball out of defence and played in Jenner for another excellent finish, it was the centre back’s third assist in as many games and Gloucester were back in the tie.
With the breeze at their backs after the interval the visitors spent most of the first fifteen minutes of the second period in the Sutton half, though Jenner’s opportunist left foot drive which fizzed just past the far post was the closest they came to reducing the deficit. The hard-working Townsend however tested the Sutton keeper and Pledger’s left wing cross flashed across the face of the goal with no-one able to get the decisive touch as the city side continued to press.
With twelve minutes remaining though Bolger netted his second of the day and some lacklustre (non)-tackling allowed Ajao the opportunity to net number five to complete a comprehensive victory for the hosts.
The return journey was embellished by an hour’s swimming at The Oasis Leisure Centre in Swindon and the post-pool gathering by Townsend’s remarkable mastery of mental maths. His ability to cerebrally add, subtract and multiply fractions of different denominators and eruditely explain his thinking was a joy to behold and earned him 40p prize money into the bargain. Other members of the squad were not so enthusiastic however, beating a hasty retreat to the popcorn machine as soon as they heard any suggestions of the word ‘algebra’.
It’s a strange word, ‘Enjoyment’. Get up, fill up with diesel, drive to London, lose 1-5, drive to Swindon, sit in a leisure centre cafe, drive back, watch people return borrowed money to Bas but not yourself, clean out the vehicle, drop the bus off in Quedgeley, drop the key off in Matson, get home 13 hours and 34 minutes after leaving. No doubt if it was RDN in the 1976 epic, ‘Taxi Driver’, he’d have left the meter running. C’est la vie.
Gloucester: Troke; Weir-Roberts, Richards, Hylton; Coldridge, Gore, Townsend, Pledger; Jenner.
