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The
future looking much brighter
By Lawrence Mentesh
Sunday the 20th of January saw Bonus Weeks taking their
first Away trip to Finestrat, a Team they had never played
before and a Team who were currently lying in 2nd position
in the League. The drive up to the Stadium was panoramic and
the pitch itself was overlooked by the pretty village of
Finestrat and the huge mountain behind it. It was an idyllic
location and hopefully ideal for taking all 3 points to help
Bonus Weeks continue their climb back up the Table.
With Adam Tauber back in the starting XI after recovering
from his knee injury and Carlos Parkin braving his own still
dodgy knee to stand in as goalkeeper Bonus Weeks were
looking to make life as difficult as possible for Finestrat,
especially as Bonus Weeks now had the luxury of 7
substitutes thanks to the return of Chris Griffen from
England and the introduction of 3 new players who all made
the journey down from Moraira. With Andy Ransom making his
impact from the sidelines and the continued support from the
Bonus Weeks faithful of Jason Loofe and Ryan Scott as well
as the loyal support of Anthony de Freitas and Garth Musk (
surely Garth will sign up soon! ) the Team were determined
to put in a good performance.
It was a hot afternoon and after a slight delay while the
referee waited for the sprinklers to stop raining down on
everybody Bonus Weeks kicked the Match off. The first 15
minutes were pretty much uneventful with both sides enjoying
good possession but with no real chances. However, all that
soon changed when the Finestrat No.14 found himself the
space and time to shoot from about 25 yards out, a cracking
shot which squeezed its way into the top right corner
despite the best efforts of Carlos to keep it out. It was a
wake-up call for Bonus Weeks although there was no denying
the quality of the strike.
Unfortunately, something even more shocking was just around
the corner. A sliding tackle by Adam Tauber won him the ball
but his opponent took extreme exception to the challenge and
decided to exact his immediate revenge by laying in to Adam.
Adam retaliated with some strikes of his own and for a
couple of minutes it was handbags at dawn as a few more
players joined in with the pushing and shoving but it was
Dave Mold who ended the contest when he put himself in the
running for Rocky 63 with a fine blow to the Finestrat
instigator. Of course, all this happened right in front of
the referee and he was ultimately left with no option but to
dismiss Dave, Adam and the Finestrat player who started it
all.
So, down to 9 men against 10 Bonus Weeks were left to do it
the hard way again, a task made even more difficult by the
very wide pitch which gave Finestrat plenty of spaces to run
in to. Nevertheless, a galvanised Bonus Weeks put the pedal
to the metal and a great run into the box by Adam Wilson
resulted in him being unceremoniously upended by the
defender. The awarded penalty was, as always, taken by Ross
Musk, and no one can doubt his ability to do just that, he
has great technique and he skilfully placed the ball in the
bottom right corner as the keeper dived helplessly the other
way.
With the Game now at 1-1, Bonus Weeks were well pumped up
and although both sides had a couple more half-chances they
managed to make their way to half-time without conceding any
more goals. A good Team Talk by Andy and a couple of changes
saw Bonus Weeks return to the field with real belief and
this was soon rewarded with their second goal when a mistake
by a defender sent the ball into the path of Adam Wilson who,
with only the keeper to beat, cleverly decided to angle his
shot towards the centre of the goal so that the
back-peddling keeper would be unable to prevent himself from
kicking it into his own net.
A very special goal indeed and it put Bonus Weeks into a 2-1
lead and things got even better when a second Finestrat
player was sent off for kicking out at Rich Billam. With the
numbers now equal again Bonus Weeks really began to get a
grip on the Game and they soon made it 3-1 when a free-kick
by Lee Frape evaded the heads of the defenders to land at
the feet of Alan Spurgeon who made no mistake of tucking the
ball past the keeper for his second goal in as many games.
Alan has worked tirelessly in the Centre of Midfield for
most of the Season and he really deserves to be on the
score-sheet on a regular basis, hopefully now the floodgates
will open for him!
With the wind taken out of their sails the frustration of
the Finestrat players began to show and their goalkeeper was
next to go for a professional foul on Chris Griffen and soon
after came their fourth red card when a high-footed
challenge into the chest of John O’Leary reduced Finestrat
to just 7 men for the last 10 minutes.
The momentum was now well and truly with Bonus Weeks and
they came very close to increasing their lead, first with a
free-kick by Nathan Conteh which sailed over everybody’s
heads and almost straight into the goal and then by Rich
Billam who struck a superb ball which was in all the way
until the keeper just managed to get across his goal to make
a brilliant save. However, the Game was finally put to bed
by Chris Griffen who raced onto a through ball by Alan
Belshaw before keeping his nerve to round the keeper and
bury the ball into an empty net.
A great finish to the Match which left Bonus Weeks as 4-1
winners and gave them their second win on the bounce. It was
also an important scalp to claim and sets them up nicely for
their Game next week against League leaders Cines IMF. With
the Team continuing to play some good football including
another Man of the Match performance by Lee Frape at the
back, excellent goalkeeping by Carlos Parkin and with
promising newcomers Nathan Conteh, Lee Slevin and Paul Davis
pushing for places the future is definitely looking much
brighter for Bonus Weeks.
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Trainer/
Coach