Monyhull 5 Dudley Lions 2

Monyhull Church 5:2 Dudley LionsFrom the moment Tom Hales found a bit of space on the left wing to send in a cross shot that looped over the despairing keeper into the top corner this was going to be the hulls day. Even Gaffer Millist showed up to the party picking up a rebound off the keeper to make it two, and break his own duck for the season.

At two up the hull were cruising, and playing to their strengths with a flat back four of Mad Dog Pickett, Big Ron Jankowski, Lumbering man mountain Dave Williams and young left back Pete Langston. In front of the deep lying four, Millist again packed the midfield with Madden, Burke and Reeson with the rocket fuelled Rainbow and Hales looking to provide the outlet for the hull to break, with Millist looking to focus the attack.

A free kick on the left saw Reeson curl the ball in toward the back post and with Big Ron bearing down on him the keeper missed in to see the hull go into half time three up.

If we can score three in one half so can they warned the Gaffer at half time to keep the hull on their toes. It’s up to you to make sure that they don’t. And despite the best efforts of the otherwise back in form Big Ron, the hull managed to keep it to just two.
With the hull in complete charge of the game Jankowski tried to shepherd a through ball back to Webber in goal. Unfortunately a Dudley forward got between them and brought it back to three one.

The hull were stung back into action, Burke made a couple of marauding runs, Rainbow was all over the park, Reeson was running the midfield putting balls through to the wings, probing for weaknesses. Burke managed to miss a chance that was not so much a sitter as a lie down in front of the goal and beg to be put away. Then Millist showed strength and skill to hold off most of the Dudley defence before playing Burke in to atone for his earlier miss and bring the lead back to three.

Changes were made with Watts, Conlon and Buckley replacing Millist Madden and Langston. Then Big Ron slipped over in the area, barely impeding the Dudley striker. The ref saw it differently and awarded a penalty. Could Webber in goal become the hero after a relatively quiet afternoon?

Which brings us nicely to a part of the match report that is becoming a regular favourite of mine, and hopefully of hullers everywhere. Last week saw our hero being compared to Sheffield United goalkeeping legend, the six foot four and twenty four stone William fatty Faulke with his penchant for throwing opposition strikers into his own goal. In this weeks episode of Mock the Webber our keeper looks into Newtons theory of gravitational attraction. This states that gravity will accelerate something at the same rate regardless of its mass. As such a feather dropped at the same time as a brick, or in this case a sack of spuds, should hit the ground at the same time. But only if it is in a vacuum so that there is no effect from air resistance.

So, could Webber get down to the penalty placed low down to his right. It was so close as Webbers hand brushed the ball on its way into the net, before his substantial frame nestled into the mud. Could he have got down any quicker? Surely air resistance wouldn’t affect the pony tailed shotstopper? Or could it, are the flowing tresses of Webbers mane causing air resistance and acting like a parachute as he tries to get down to the low shots. And if so, is the answer for Webber to wear his hair in a bun next week so that the theory can be tested. Surely Gaffer Millist must step in and demand a bun so as not to risk a recurrence.

But back to the match, with the score at 4:2 and the end of the match closing in man of the match Reeson produced a moment of magic. Finding space in the centre of the field just outside the box he curled a lovely shot into the top corner to cap the hulls day.

And finally a word for the young left back. I think all hull fans would agree he has a great future ahead of him, but how do you judge how well a defender has played? It’s so easy with fancy dan strikers, all they have to do is kick a small ball into a large net once and they are a hero. For a defender is the mark is how many goals go in? possibly but with both of those down to Big Ron perhaps a good measure is how the opposition react. If they sub your direct opponent then that must be a good measure. And if like the youngster you see off two opponents well, that must be a sign of a top quality performance.

First was the Lions left back who made an overlapping run , but ran into the deceptively slim yet wiry left back and had to go off injured. Then in the second half the Lions right winger was subbed, despite being one of their better players having got no change out of the youthful defender. In the eyes of this reporter, surely an early candidate for player of the season.