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A
high note
By Lawrence Mentesh
The last League game of the Season for Bonus Weeks was
played at the scene of their first League game, the nice
pitch at La Nucia where Bonus Weeks have never lost ( 1 win
and 1 draw ). Despite being over a week into May it was a
very cold and dull afternoon and the 4 o’clock kick-off saw
Bonus Weeks turning up with only 11 men.
The long-term absentees of the last few weeks were still
missing except for the much welcomed return of stalwart Lee
Frape who had finally thrown his plaster cast away and
declared himself fit to play after strapping his hand up
with a neoprene support just to be on the safe side. He
joined an unfamiliar line-up at the back as Bonus Weeks were
also without the suspended Adam Tauber and Pete Frank as
well as Jeff Ball who was away. Missing too was Alan Belshaw
who unfortunately had to be at work.
Despite having no subs Bonus Weeks still had a decent team
and everybody felt confident that they could end the Season
on a high note with 3 points in the bag. This thought became
somewhat sidetracked when the referee turned up, he was
apparently 16 but he looked like a 10 year old and he was
dwarfed by everybody on the pitch, even by Lawrence Mentesh
( now that’s saying something!! ).
However, to be fair to him, he actually had a very good game
overall ( except for the usual harsh offside decisions! )
and the game was conducted with very little incident or
interruptions.
From the start of the game Bonus Weeks were up for it, they
were glad to be back on astro-turf and it showed, they
passed the ball really well and played much better than the
last couple of weeks. They hounded the Onosca players and
gave them very little time on the ball, using their own
attacking runs to keep Onosca pinned back in their own half.
The last time these two teams met it ended 0-0 with Bonus
Weeks having had 3 goals ruled out and this trend looked set
to continue when Carlos Parkin was first to put the ball in
the net but his effort was disallowed due to a foul in the
build-up. Bonus Weeks then continued to be frustrated by
very close and very dubious off-side decisions which spared
Onosca’s blushes but eventually they scored a fantastic
opening goal that even the referee could not deny. On 15
minutes Lee Frape won a challenge on the edge of his own
area and then surged forward with the ball, exchanging
passes with James Charles and then Nathan Conteh before
finally squaring the ball across the face of goal where he
found the in-form Cameron Parker who timed his run to
perfection to bury the ball in the back of the next to put
Bonus Weeks 1-0 up. It was no less than they deserved and
Bonus Weeks sensed that the floodgates were about to open.
However, they were soon to be denied another goal when a
great free-kick by Lee Frape was met by a sweet side-foot
volley by Carlos Parkin but again the referee blew for
off-side even though Carlos had started his run from well
behind the defence. It was a travesty to be robbed of such a
brilliant goal but Bonus Weeks had no option but to just get
on with it, they knew that the way they were playing more
goals would be on their way.
As for Onosca, they managed only a few half-chances in the
first half as the make-shift back 4 did an excellent job of
snuffing out the danger. Their best effort was a good strike
at goal which was cleared off the line by the alert Lee
Frape and not long after he had to do the same again when
another good strike was blocked well by Adam Musk and as the
ball spun up in the air and looped back over him it was Lee
to the rescue again. The loose ball then fell to another
Onosca player but his goal-bound shot was then blocked to
safety by Lawrence Mentesh.
Bonus Weeks could easily have gone into the break at least
3-0 up but their consternation was to get even worse in the
second half when incredibly they had yet another 2 goals
ruled out for off-side! The first one was never off, another
great run out of defence by Lee Frape saw him spreading the
ball wide right to Cameron Parker and Cameron’s return ball
back inside to Lee saw Lee slipping it past the advancing
keeper. The second one may well have been but this time it
was Cameron who had his goal chalked off after some good
passing to set him up.
However, Cameron did get his second goal which legally stood,
a good knock by Carlos Parkin in the centre of midfield just
managed to evade the head of an Onosca defender and as
Cameron brought the ball down he decided to try his luck and
he let fly with a fantastic strike that literally flew into
the top right corner of the goal leaving the keeper
absolutely no chance. Unstoppable!
Onosca were now really under the cosh and they nearly went 3
down when Lawrence Mentesh won a challenge on the half-way
line. He carried the ball a few yards before laying it off
to Carlos Parkin and, after holding his run to beat the
off-side, he slipped through the defence to collect the
through ball by Carlos before sending in a great cross to
the back post to pick out the un-marked Nathan Conteh but
unfortunately Nathan’s header drifted just over the
crossbar.
Several more chances came for Bonus Weeks, most notably from
some great balls into the box by John O’Leary but by hook
and by crook Onosca managed to fend them off including a
very close effort by James Charles who got his knee onto the
end of one of John’s crosses only to lift the ball high over
the crossbar.
Onosca continued to battle and did create some good openings
but again the Bonus Weeks back line held firm and just would
not let them through. With 15 minutes left Nathan Conteh had
to leave the pitch with cramp and as they had no subs Bonus
Weeks played the next 10 minutes with only 10 men. Onosca
used this to their advantage to exploit not only a tiring
opposition but also the extra space that opened up for them
and despite a dogged resistance by Bonus Weeks they were
eventually beaten by a great strike from just outside of the
box from an Onosca player who simply had too much time and
space on the ball.
With the score now at 2-1 and with memories of far too many
last minute goals haunting them Bonus Weeks still had 5 more
minutes to survive, fortunately Nathan managed to get
himself back on the pitch even though he was far from being
100% and with the rest of the team giving their all Bonus
Weeks finally managed to hold on to their deserved lead to
win the match.
It was a fantastic team effort with everybody playing really
well and it was good to see Lee Frape back in the thick of
it all, he is such a good defender and really makes a
difference to the team. Special mention must also go to
Cameron Parker for his 2 brilliant goals and his tireless
running all afternoon, James Charles for the same ( except
for the goals! ) and to Lawrence Mentesh who put in a solid
performance at left back.
The League games are now over and these final 3 points for
Bonus Weeks not only give them a good end to their campaign
but also lift them 2 places in the Table from 11th to 9th,
putting them back above Quinta del 50 and Aluma where they
have been all Season except for the last 2 weeks.
The Cup Competition now starts next weekend but Bonus Weeks
have a bye in the first round so they will play their first
game in 2 weeks against the winners of the Cafeteria Galera
and RTE. Datil match.
With so many positives to be taken from the way they played
today and with several players set to return to the ranks by
then Bonus Weeks can be confident that they will have more
than a good chance of pulling off a Cup upset.
As always, bring it on….
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Trainer/
Coach