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It's not how bad the
referee was
By Lawrence Mentesh
A cold Sunday morning and an early 10am kick-off saw
RTE.Onosca/Pol.Nucia coming to Albir in what was officially
their Home Game. Both Teams came into the Match on the back
of a win, with Onosca having beaten Hermanos Jerez 2-1 last
week. Onosca were also just behind Bonus Weeks in the League
Table with only 1 point separating the two.
Bonus Weeks welcomed back Rich Billam up front but were
missing last weeks Match Winner Jeff Ball who was still
nursing his hamstring back to health. He did turn up to
support though, alongside regular super fan Jason Loofe.
Pete Frank therefore replaced Jeff at left back, allowing
Gaz Walling to make his mark in the centre of defence
alongside Lee Frape. With promising newcomer Nathan Conteh
also sidelined with a hamstring strain and Chris Griffin not
turning up, Ross Musk was moved across the pitch to fill the
left wing position.
It looked promising for Bonus Weeks at kick-off time as
Onosca had only turned up with 9 men, although this
increased to 10 a few minutes later when a late-comer
arrived. However, despite being a man down, it was Onosca
who started by far the brighter, enjoying much of the early
possession and keeping Bonus Weeks on the back foot.
Fortunately, despite their sluggish start, Bonus Weeks
absorbed all the pressure easily enough, reducing the Onosca
threat to a couple of half-chances.
Once they cleared their heads Bonus Weeks began to get more
of a grip on the Game, but, as has happened many times in
the past, they struggled to craft the all-important first
goal early on, with the Onosca defence doing an excellent
job of keeping them out.
Onosca’s numerical disadvantage was also more than evened up
by the referee who, in all honesty, had a shocking Game.
Never have I seen such a whistle happy referee, he blew for
virtually every challenge that Bonus Weeks made, even when
the ball was won cleanly and fairly. This really broke the
Game up and left the Bonus Weeks play severely hampered and
disjointed, as well as infuriating the players, but to their
credit they did their best to just try and get on with it.
They did just that after half an hour when Alan Spurgeon
rose well to a great cross in from the left to head the ball
goal-wards, his effort beating everybody but unfortunately
not the post, the ball rebounding off it where it was then
seized upon by the alert Adam Wilson who got to it first to
smash it into the back of the net. However, the Bonus Weeks
celebrations lasted no more than a few seconds as the
referee had decided to disallow the goal for an offside
against Adam, a very harsh decision indeed as there was a
very good chance that he was still onside when Alan actually
headed the ball.
A real let-off for Onosca who continued to claim and win
every offside decision against the Bonus Weeks players
making it virtually impossible for them to get round the
back of the Onosca defence, a real shame as Bonus Weeks put
some great crosses into the box in the first half,
especially from Ross Musk out on the left. When half-time
did come the score remained 0-0 so Bonus Weeks decided to
try out new signing Ryan Moorhead out on the left wing for
the start of the second half.
The last 45 minutes were looking to be as tight as the first
and one goal from either side might well decide the Game.
Bonus Weeks thought they had done this on two more occasions
but, incredibly, both goals were disallowed by the referee,
the first for an innocuous challenge in the build-up to the
goal and the second for off-side. By now the Bonus Weeks
players felt like they were banging their heads against a
brick wall but the referee’s incredulous decisions were
relentless. The Onosca players knew how to work the referee
and the referee let them, making life very difficult indeed
for Bonus Weeks who just wanted to play football.
Bonus Weeks did manage to create two golden opportunities to
clinch the Game that the referee could have done nothing
about but some amazing saves from the goalkeeper kept both
shots out. The first was a brilliant strike from Adam Wilson
who latched on to great ball over the top from Alan Belshaw
but Adam’s low curling shot was knocked just wide of the
post by the keeper’s outstretched hand. The second effort
came with only minutes to go, a long, high cross from the
left was headed back across goal by Lawrence Mentesh where
it found Rich Billam but his pile-driver of a shot was
somehow saved by the keeper’s legs.
It seemed that Bonus Weeks were destined not to win this
Game and when the final whistle went it was Onosca who were
by far the happier to take home a share of the spoils. Bonus
Weeks by contrast were dejected and quite rightly disgusted
to have been cheated of all 3 points. They were, admittedly,
not at their best today, but they had done more than enough
to have won the Match, but how can you compete against 3
disallowed goals, constant off-sides and countless cheap
fouls?
Again, Bonus Weeks will have to be far more clinical in
their attacking football, but they can draw some comfort
from another point to add to their tally, no sending off’s
and their first clean sheet of the season, special mention
for that must go to Gaz Walling for his fantastic debut at
the back and to Carlos Parkin for his faultless handling and
positioning in net.
Next week marks the start of the second round of Matches and
Bonus Weeks will find themselves back against Division 2
whipping boys Iberseguridad and nothing short of 3 points
and a hatful of goals will do. Let’s hope that the only
talking point is about how well we played and not how bad
the referee was.
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Trainer/
Coach