Rovers: Maidenhead 0 Reading 1

Rovers see off Magicians

It seems to be the mission of the Rovers to make games as hard as possible for themselves, but equally rewarding. With a short trip to Maidenhead for a late Saturday push-back, the Rovers secured a 1-0 win against a mainly youthful and energetic side.

It was a game of relatively few chances, with the main talking points being off the ball incidents. One particularly enjoyable moment was when Iain Marsh, playing at right back smashed the ball up-field. Well, he would’ve smashed the ball up field, except that he missed the top of the ball by a few inches, and proceeded to pirouette on a sixpence before crashing heavily to the ground, bouncing up momentarily before coming to rest. ….easily more devastating than a Richard Hammond crash….

With the score still 0-0 and with the Rovers already having missed a couple of chances, one of the Maidenhead youngsters got a tad cocky and decided he’d juggle the ball of the ground while running. Fortunately Spag, fully knowing the rules of the game, decided to rectify the situation by smashing stick/ball/arm away, much to the delight of Matt on the sidelines, who gave an impromptu umpiring lesson to the Maidenhead subs. It’s so good to be able to give something back to the game once in awhile.

At halftime, PQ gave a rather familiar team talk (see prior two weeks reports!!), but this time the Rovers didn’t kick start their game. Although the defence was very solid throughout, with Chris the keeper only needing to make a few saves, it took midway through the second half for Rovers to get the goal. Spag made it and scored it, but the rest of the team were giving encouraging words as he did so, like ‘pass the ball you dozy t**t..…oh,  good goal!’ and ‘for heaven sake, do something with it…’  After the game Spag admitted that it was a ‘rubbish goal’ but at least it was better than Monkey’s effort that sailed well over the bar when a yard out and facing an open goal. Probably a good job he missed as if we’d celebrated his goal, the decision may’ve been reversed….. (sorry, maybe a bit harsh there!!)

So, a week off now, and then a top of the table clash against Sutlers, where we’ll look to continue the 100% start.