It’s
not all doom and gloom
By Lawrence Mentesh
With games rapidly running out to salvage some points Bonus
Weeks were looking to do a number on an Aluma Team who were
sitting just two places behind them in the Table and who
were very lucky to have scraped a 2-2 draw against them in
the first round.
Unfortunately, Bonus Weeks were down to the bare bones of a
squad again with only James Charles making it back from
injury and with many others still unavailable for a variety
of reasons they were only able to start the Match with the
minimum of 11 players, the arrival of Alan Belshaw fresh
from work 10 minutes later boosting them to 12. Stalwart
centre back Lee Frape did turn up at the Match but with his
busted hand from last week set in a cast and slung round his
neck he could do no more than watch and cheer his team-mates
on.
It was an unwelcome return to the horrible gritty surface of
La Marina and this certainly had a detrimental effect on the
excellent passing that Bonus Weeks had been enjoying in
their games over the last couple of weeks. However, despite
this setback, Bonus Weeks just about managed to spread the
ball about with some manner of purpose, it wasn’t pretty at
times but it was the best that they could expect under the
circumstances.
They started reasonably well against an Aluma side who
seemed equally up for the spoils but it was Bonus Weeks who
drew first blood after only 10 minutes when a decent effort
on goal by Chris Griffin was poorly dealt with by the Aluma
defence and their indecision allowed the alert Ross Musk to
steal in between keeper and defender to bury the ball into
the back of the net for his 6th of the Season.
This was a great start for the Team but deep down they all
knew that they could never count their chickens in this
League and of course, true to form, disaster was only just
around the corner and despite their best efforts to maintain
as much possession as possible they were suckered again by 3
incredibly soft goals in the first half.
The first came on 20 minutes, the spritely No.21 of Aluma
using his trickery to turn the defender in the box and
although he then found himself virtually on the edge of play
at the dead ball line he somehow managed to crack a shot off
which beat the keeper high at his near post. Both defender
and keeper probably could have done better but any challenge
in the box would no doubt have resulted in a customary dive
and a penalty and thus the same end result, a rock and a
hard place springs to mind!
The second goal was equally frustrating and again it was the
No.21 who evaded a couple of challenges in the box to send
himself into the clear and when he saw the keeper off his
line he tested his luck with a close range lob, the
application of which was perfect and his celebrations as his
Team took a 2-1 lead said it all.
Gutted to say the least Bonus Weeks continued to threaten
the Aluma goal but as always they couldn’t find the finish
when they needed it, unlike Aluma who were literally handed
their 3rd goal on a plate by the otherwise excellent referee
after 40 minutes. In an amazing few moments which had to be
seen to be believed, the referee blew his whistle during an
Aluma attack just over the half-way line. As the Bonus Weeks
players and most of the Aluma Team stopped for the necessary
free-kick the referee then decided he did not mean to blow
after all and allowed the play to continue, just as an Aluma
attacker was heading the ball onto his compatriot who was a
mile off-side as he received the ball. The Bonus Weeks
defenders were by now at least 10 yards behind play and as
the referee failed to give the off-side they could do
nothing but watch as the No.21 strolled unchallenged to
decide which side of the keeper he was going to put the ball
to make it 3-1 and claim his rather easy hat-trick.
Bonus Weeks protested vehemently to the referee but
incredulously the goal stood and they had no choice but to
go into the break with a 2 goal deficit. The second half saw
even more attacks from Bonus Weeks and Aluma were reduced to
the odd half chance but again Bonus Weeks walked the walk
but couldn’t talk the talk, most of their good work and
pressure ending with the cliché of ‘couldn’t hit a barn
door’!
However, central midfielder Cameron Parker who has been
improving in every game did raise the spirits with a
fantastic solo run from the half-way line which took him to
a one-on-one situation with the keeper but unfortunately his
attempt to slide it past him was a little to heavy and the
ball rolled agonizingly wide of the far post. Aluma could
then have added a 4th with a great dipping free-kick but
this time Adam Musk was more than up to the task as he
stretched upwards to tip it over the crossbar for a corner.
It was looking like Bonus Weeks were going to be leaving
empty handed again from a promising game but some stories do
have an amazing twist. Paul Wells who turns up most weeks
and sits patiently on the bench waiting for his few moments
of action was brought back on for the last half hour and
with dogged persistence he latched on to a through ball into
the area by Alan Belshaw and Paul then showed great
composure and a brilliant finish to lob the ball over the
keepers head for his first goal of the Season.
This brought the score back to 3-2 and with just over 5
minutes to go there seemed that there might be a chance to
salvage a draw and a much needed point that would stop Aluma
from leapfrogging Bonus Weeks in the Table. However, the
fairy dust had already run out and despite a great free-kick
by Chris Griffin which went only inches over the crossbar
there was to be no happy ending to this sorry tale and Bonus
Weeks had to take another undeserved loss on the chin.
There are now only 2 games left and it is imperative that
Bonus Weeks get some points out of them, particularly
against Quinta Del 50 next week, otherwise they may find
themselves slipping to a ridiculously low 11th place in the
Table, a very, very harsh position for them indeed.
Hopefully there will be more players back in the squad by
next week so it’s not all doom and gloom just yet!
Trainer/
Coach