Alphington 2 - 1 Newton Abbot 13th Oct 2007 - Never Has My Gob Been So Smacked!!!

After last weeks disastrous display at Liverton I was wondering how long I would last before I got dismayed and the thoughts of going home would enter my head, well let me tell you it did not come, this game had everything you should expect of a game a football - passion, believe, team spirit, energy and a gritted determination by the whole Alphington team to show the critics (myself included) that they do know how to play football and for me they showed that above all the Alphas are a team united in their thinking that they are much better than the recent results would indicate.

The game started at a frantic pace with the Abbots throwing everything at the Alphas in what looked like an attempt to break them down early, they came very close to doing just that in the 4th minute when a great cross into the danger area was headed over the bar by Friend. The barrage continued up until around about the 10 minute mark when the Alphas broke out and Danny Tyrell had his first strike on goal which went wide. The Alphas continued to play some superb football and used the full width of the pitch to pull the Abbots out of position and Lee Staddon sent in a low cross that was fired into the net via the boot of the Newton Abbot defender Potter. the Abbots were in total disarray and 4 minutes later Danny Tyrell doubled the lead with a sublime piece of footwork that was befitting of Saturday nights "Come Dancing" before unleashing a shot with such pace the keeper had no chance.

Not to be outdone by Tyrell's dancing shoes, Gary Hayes unleashed a couple of rockets that came very close in the 25th and 27th minute. On the half hour mark Friend pulled a goal back for the visitors with a well taken header. The first half ended with the Alphas having to defend a constant assault on goal by the Abbots and their stout defensive effort was admirable and well held together by Neil Whittaker and Nick Gotts experience and constant communication with the youngsters.

From a football perspective the 2nd half was fairly uneventful other than to say the Abbots tried desperately to break down the Alphas who gave no quarter to the visitors whilst again working some excellent chances by using the flanks well, the Alphas full y deserved this victory and much credit has to go to Robbie Vaughan for raising the team from last weeks atrocious performance.

That's the end of my bit on the football side of things, but I have to report how disgusted I was with the bad language, abuse and behaviour that was shown by the Newton abbot players, management and some of the supporters. I watch as many games as I am able to during the season and my wife and children who are all ardent football supporters come with me to most matches but I have the misfortune to witness such behaviour as exerted by the Abbot fraternity as today I will have to stop attending some games as I will not subject my family to the things I was hearing.

There was a constant tirade of abuse aimed at the man in the middle from the bench whilst the home official who was doing a fantastic job of running the line and applying the offside rules correctly ( as backed up by the Abbots lino who I was talking to) was on goodness knows how many occasions called an effing cheat and much worse by several of the Abbot players and supporters. This for me was further compounded by the referee doing nothing about the abuse that was being received and audible to all around the pitch. This behaviour simply has to be stopped as the people who are now running the lines in the East ( and I guess the West) are doing so unpaid and for the benefit of the players on the pitch and the clubs playing on match days and I my gut feeling is that if on this occasion it has been a paid 2nd or 3rd official running the line the outcome would have been much different as the referee would have supported them, further to that for some years now there has been the stamp out racism in football campaign going on ( quite rightly so) and I my feelings are that my children and wife having to be subjected to hearing such abuse is no different in so much as it may well prevent them from being able to spend their Saturday afternoons doing what they enjoy - watching football

Eds man of the Match: Adrian Roberts
All first team reports are written by and are the sole view of Russ Murch, they are in no way endorsed by Alphington AFC