CLIFT CRUSHES MAGPIES HOPES

Magpies 2001  0  Falcons  2

Magpies rivalry with Falcons goes back longer than with any other team in Sunday football. When I first joined the club over eight years ago that rivalry was already established and over the years it has loosely become known as a Derby match, even though geographically it wasn’t always the case. In the early days Falcons were Fulbourn Falcons and with Magpies being borne out of Cherry Hinton Lions there was a clear Fulbourn v Cherry Hinton rivalry. Then Falcons became Shelford Falcons and moved to the then Halls League whilst Magpies stayed in the Tucker League for one more season (and to go on and win it). When Magpies joined the Halls League not only were they a division apart from Falcons, they were also positioned in the northern divisions whilst Falcons were in the southern divisions. That meant no league meetings took place for several seasons until eventually both sides were in the Senior Division two years ago. In the meantime Magpies and Falcons had played two cup finals as well as a cup quarter final with Falcons winning the games on all three occasions. They had also won every league encounter played in the Tucker League. Two narrow defeats followed in Magpies first Senior Division season, 2-1 away and then a week later at home. Last season Magpies finally won at home but then were soundly beaten in the away game. So today saw the latest instalment of a rivalry that had reached game number twelve. Both sides have changed a lot since the last game took place, Falcons effectively promoting their reserve side to be their first team this season whilst Magpies saw wholesale changes to their squad over the summer. So the importance of today’s game had to be explained to a fair few of our players in the lead up to kick off. These days it is really our Derby game as with Barnwell Rangers, we are the three Cambridge based clubs in the division. Since Barnwell and Falcons share the same ground, it’s a toss up to choose who the real rivalry lies with; we’ve had tremendous battles with both sides over recent years. If any other team can be considered to be Derby rivals then it’s Fulbourn Sports for the Cherry Hinton-Fulbourn aspect. Last weeks game against Sports certainly felt like a Derby match and was played as such, lots of tackles going in, a tight affair and ultimately an honourable draw. Today’s game saw Magpies as clear under-dogs with Falcons racing away at the top of the table and Magpies battling to avoid relegation. Conditions were poor today, a really strong wind was going to be a bit of a leveller so that probably helped us a bit, and with several players returning I had the luxury of not needing to get kitted up today. With Dave Morley ruled out through injury and Sean Hefferon still unavailable we were lucky that Fraser Kelsall and Steve Symonds were both back and there was also the return of Kevin Jones after being persuaded to come back for at least this game; we needed all the help we could get and I was grateful to Kevin for coming today. Tom Murphy, who I was expecting to come along didn’t turn up, but at least we had twelve today, the very unlucky player to miss out in the starting line-up was Dan Probert. It was a real toss up between him and Gary Anstee, had we been playing a less mobile side like Gamlingay or Barnwell then I’d have gone for Dan but with Falcons likely to be quick in attack the decision was purely football based. That meant a starting line up of Garth Brewer in goal, Steve Symonds, Charles Harpur, Fraser Kelsall and Gary Anstee in defence, a midfield of Jonny Pugh, Nick Stubbings, Paul May and David May and up front Gary James partnered by Kevin Jones. Falcons for their part had a couple of ex-Magpies players in their line-up, Craig Paterson at the back and Lee Clift up front, but there was no sign of Ross Paterson, another ex-Magpie who has been a regular in the Falcons team this season. With ref Joe Iwanko ready and Magpies winning the toss to play with the strong wind, Falcons kicked off dead on 10.30.
The game made a predictably slow start, the wind preventing anything happening easily, and after Charles Harpur had snuffed out Lee Clift’s first foray on goal, Magpies first attack saw Steve Symonds play in David May in a good position but his cross cum shot was kept out by the boot of the Falcons custodian and the visitors cleared. Falcons managed a shot soon after but it went wide and then a bit later Magpies had a decent attack which ended with a much closer effort from Nick Stubbings as his effort went fractionally wide of the post. Then for quite a while not much happened in the game, both sides having some promising moments but not finding the final ball. David May was Magpies best attacking threat whilst Lee Clift looked lively up front for Falcons but mostly the goalkeepers were untroubled. Kevin Jones and Gary James nearly combined to give the home side a good chance but on the half hour mark Falcons took the lead from what was a picture-book goal. The perfect cross came in from the right just between Magpies centre-backs and that man Lee Clift was there to head home powerfully as Garth Brewer got a good hand on the effort but couldn’t prevent it from going in. The rest of the half saw both sides huff and puff but there was little goal threat and half time came with the score 1-0 to the visitors.
Probably the only disappointing aspect of Magpies first half efforts was a lack of strikes on goal. Playing with the wind at their backs there should have been more shots from distance but at the same time, defensively they had looked solid, only undone by one wonderful delivery. The second half would be even more of a struggle playing into the wind but overall there was nothing to complain about, all eleven had acquitted themselves well so far.
The second half onslaught from Falcons with the wind at their backs didn’t really happen, Magpies rode their luck a little but overall coped well and defended comfortably. Indeed it was the home side who found the first proper effort on target from a free kick. Paul May teed up Kevin Jones and his effort was on target but not far enough into the corner to make it anything other than a routine save, the Falcons custodian gathering the ball diving to his right. Still the game kept fairly quiet but Falcons had a couple of chances, on one occasion Garth Brewer was out sharply to save with his feet, the other ended with a shot wide of the target. Magpies weren’t creating much but it would be wrong to say they were hanging on; they were still very much in the game at just a goal behind. Chances were arare though, and the enxt one that fell to Steve Symonds saw Magpies full back slice his effort well wide after being teed up by Kevin Jones. A better effort came from Nick Stubbings but although on target, his shot didn’t have the required strength to trouble the Falcons keeper. After Garth had made another smart save with his feet, Magpies had an attack that ended with Jonny Pugh getting in a shot but again the effort lacked power and was comfortably saved. With just five minutes to go the real excitement of the second half came but sadly for Magpies the luck went with Falcons. Gary James latched onto a loose ball after good work from Paul May and his first time effort from the corner of the penalty area had the keeper well beaten but came back of the crossbar and although Kevin Jones got to the rebound he was unable to find space to do anything before the Falcons defence were on top of him. Then right at the death a Flacons move down the Magpies left resulted in another perfect cross and another great header from Lee Clift. Game over with Magpies having not even enough time to launch another attack before the final whistle went. After the offering of congratulations and a few handshakes with the Falcons players, I chatted to Joe Iwanko as we left the pitch. He felt we had been worth a draw and I also felt we had not had the rub of the green today and maybe deserved something from the game. I can live with that though; we certainly had the luck a week earlier and football will always even it up in time. I want to congratulate Joe Iwanko on another faultless display of refereeing. I also want to congratulate this new Falcons side, they were a pleasure to play against; there wasn’t one bad word or one bad challenge all game from either side. They are in my opinion worthy champions elect. I also definitely want to congratulate my team, they couldn’t have tried harder and on another day would have gained more reward for their efforts. Had Gary’s effort gone in it would have been a draw, as it is a 2-0 home defeat doesn’t look that great on paper but most of the other sides have lost by more to Falcons this season so we can be pleased up to a point. Five games played this year so far and only one bad performance, that’s really not too bad. Hard to pick a man of the match today, no-one really stood out either good or bad, but I thought Steve Symonds had a really good game today so he got the award; he was off to buy some suitable footwear for training after the game so saving him four quid will be a little help! Across the pitch there were good displays and Gary Anstee justified my decision to play him at left back with another very good display. That said I must also again offer my sympathetic apologies to Dan Probert who was sub today and didn’t get a game. I can well understand his frustration, after all I’m sure I’ve been an un-used sub for Magpies over the years far more than anyone else. I should think at least one hundred times in my eight plus years with the club I was there ready and didn’t play. It isn’t easy to accept at times but this game was so finely balanced at 1-0 for so long, I couldn’t risk changing the defence. Had we been 3-0 down or more optimistically 2 or 3 goals to the good he would have played. It’s tough on him because he played well the week before, I just hope he doesn’t take it too badly for too long, I want him at the club, he’s a lovely bloke and he will almost certainly play the next game. We don’t have a game next week which will allow a few players to recover from knocks, when we return we will now apparently play Exning in two weeks time. I’m not happy about that game being brought forward from early April at such short notice so we shall see if it’s really necessary. Not often for me to be too upbeat after a defeat but this game and the one a week previous have given me real optimism that we may yet win another game or two before the end of the season and comfortably avoid the drop. Here’s hoping anyway!