2's top North Premier League

keen to keep up the momentum from our victory over Preston last time out. Even though we were missing a few regulars a strong side took the field against lowly Alderley as we set out to cement top spot in the Northern Premier League.

Despite Alderley’s league position, we knew we’d be in for a tough afternoon due to their well organised team structure – a team structure which appeared to revolve around just how many players can you cram into your own ‘D’.

From the first whistle the game took on the pattern it would follow for almost the entire 70 mins, plenty of possession for Brooklands without necessarily making the most of our dominance. Alderley defended bravely and always had an effective outlet through their defender, Rod Hull, who had a penchant for aerials. The first 15 minutes passed without incident, which was a welcome relief to the umpire (who had also taken charge of the Preston match a fortnight earlier and had personally brandished 10 of the 11 yellow cards in that match) but it was then that our new Brazilian attacking wing back, Kavu, linked well with our midfield and marauded down the wing to supply an inviting cross which none of the forwards were quite able to convert. Despite having the lion’s share of possession and territory, we were restricted to only a few half chances and a couple of short corners. Nil nil at half time – cue Coach Mulford’s rousing team talk and tactic tinkering which we hoped would lead us to the breakthrough in the second half.

The second half started badly from a Brooklands point of view as Wolfy (self-proclaimed hero of the Preston match) was on the receiving end of a particularly nasty stray eyelash which lead to him sat off the end of the pitch, unable to continue, with Gammo and MLH for company. Cue our very own Mr Utility, Captain Little, to drop a line and give a master class for the remainder of the match on how to make a centre forward look incredibly stupid numerous times with a slow dip of the shoulder and a right to left drag, which time after time the opposing forward had no answer to other than to run, full pelt, straight past Greek.

As the game went on Brooklands continued to push confident that the pressure was building on Alderley and our patience would eventually pay off – after 60 mins it finally did. Steve ‘Silver Fox’ Andrews went on another mazy run in the opposition D, having drawn the attention of three defenders and the goalie, his blocked shot fell to Trigger who simply could not miss. 1-0.

The team breathed a collective sigh of relief, despite some valiant defending from Alderley we had eventually found a breakthrough and there was no way we would let it slip from here. I mean, it would take a monumental mistake or some calamitous defending to let the opposition back into the match bearing in mind they had penetrated our D only a few times in the entire match. Step forward Simon and Andy to take us through the Chuckle Brothers School of Defending….

The aforementioned Rod Hull decided to throw his 57th aerial of the day towards the middle of the pitch, there appeared to be little danger as Durham’s finest, S.Clapham (still playing with a mild hangover from last week’s endeavours) strode forward looking to assertively claim the dropping ball, it was at this point Andy also decided he fancied a piece of this particular aerial and began to close in on the landing zone. Twenty other players, ten substitutes, two coaches, two managers, two umpires and numerous spectators could all see what was about to happen… it was only Barry and Paul Chuckle who could not. Thankfully Paul saw Barry coming at the last possible minute, a fact which prevented a full blown collision and no doubt a trip to A&E for the comedy siblings, however, as they stood in the middle of the pitch saying “to me, to you” the ball bounced past them and straight to one of the three gleeful Alderley forwards who, in fairness, broke extremely quickly and finished well giving VB zero chance in the Brooklands net. 1-1. Oh dear, oh dear.

Despite bossing the game for 60-odd minutes Brooklands found themselves staring at the likely possibility of two dropped points in a game which should have been out of sight. Time to show our mettle and do what we set out to do at the start of the match – cement top spot. Cue the kitchen sink being thrown at the opposition back 9, eventually the ball was transferred to Andy/Barry who smashed the ball into the D towards Trigger who diverted/ mis-controlled the ball past the helpless GK and restored our slim advantage. 2-1.

The final few minutes were slightly edgy (pardon the pun) but Brooklands held out to record a hard fought victory against an Alderley side that came very close to achieving their objective of a draw. Other results meant that Brooklands now occupy top spot with a little bit of daylight to our nearest challengers. Next week sees another local derby against Bowdon 2’s, hopefully back in the squad will come Darius returning from his grazed knee which kept him out of this week’s match. Congratulations to him and commiserations to Louise who said yes.

Men of the match: Paul and Barry.

Match Report by Tristan 'Trigger' Gilbody