Big House 5-1 FC Village
24/03/07 - League

FC Village's days as a Saturday side could be numbered after this latest fiasco saw them get 11 players out on the pitch but that included manager Steve and assistant John. In the end they did fairly well considering they played most of the second half with nine men. This week will be decision time as to the future of the side. These are troubled times for the side and this was the worst week so far as the side were already missing Gav, Damo, Les, Leigh when they heard that Maggot had moved to another side and then both Dava and Mike C failed to show up for the game. This left them with nine available players so both Steve and John had to get some spare pads and boots out to make up the numbers. On a poor playing surface down at Lingham the make shift side started off fairly well and were able to hold the Big House at bay with relative ease. The Village were unable to offer much up at the other end but they looked comfortable defending in numbers. Then with Nic off the field getting his injured ankle seen to the home side made the most of it and opened the scoring. They doubled their lead a few minutes later although there was a big question over whether it was actually offside and it looked as though the floodgates might open. With the limping Nic back on the Village held out until half time and the goal rush didn’t arrive. Still the expected goals didn’t arrive when they restarted and this was as much down to the Village defence doing really well but once Nic limped off injured (not sure if he got his marching orders as the ref wanted his name and he just limped off) the Big House doubled their lead. The first was a miss hit shot from the edge of the area and the second a free kick that Jay failed to see in the sun and went straight in to the net. Things got even worse for the side when Ritchie was rather harshly sent off after his neat turn saw the ref get in his way. His comments to the ref telling him to get out of his way were deemed enough to earn a booking but when Ritchie smiled in dismay the ref changed it to a straight red and so the team were now down to nine. This all seemed very strange as the ref ignored some over the top tackles and even let Martin and a Big House forward off the hook when they squared up to each other. Once more the Big House thought they were going to rack up the goals but with Jay making some good saves they never came and in fact it was the Village who scored next. On rare forage up in to the Big House half the Village got a free kick and Muzza floated over a pin point centre which Booey headed home in style to cap a M.O.M performance from him. The final say however went to the home side when from yet another corner a shot came in which Mike R hacked away but the ref said it had crossed the line and so it became 5-1. Minutes later it was all over thankfully and overall it was a spirited effort from the eleven who had turned and the management will this week be making the decision of can they survive and get through to the end of the season.