Another weekend, another six-goal scoreline for Folkestone’s finest as they put K-Sports to the sword for the second time this season, this time on home turf in the main event of a packed Saturday fixture list.
Sporting a familiar lineup featuring the return of self-appointed player manager Woody along with Gizmo, fresh back from his Caribbean holiday, the Ops were in a determined mood, clearly looking to bank three more points in this, their best season in living memory.
The game commenced on a bright, crisp winter’s afternoon, with a low, bright sun and a packed gallery, keen to watch the club heroes in action once more. K-Sports, with a long history of some stinging scores against the Sevens were clearly out to rectify their 6-2 loss earlier in the season and featured a bolstered side of youth and experience started brightly, but struggled to get into a rhythm as the mids and flanks of the home side sought to snuff out any threatening forays and push the ball back into the visitors half.
Despite some play that was perhaps a little less fluid than the Ops would have liked, they began to press harder into the visitors half with the forwards being kept busy with some great marauding play from the likes of Messy, Beemian and Tumble – the latter in great form this season, and given plenty of space along the right wing to feed the ball forward. Inevitably, their persistence paid off, with some great pressing for Mjölnir to release the ball forward to the path of Beemian to punch the ball confidently in the net to open his account for the day.
With the first goal under their belt, the Sevens looked to double their lead quickly and were winning number of short corners which, despite several close efforts, were soon rewarded: a great injection from Messy to Mjölnir at the top of the D saw the forward dispatch a cannon-like effort past the keeper and notch up his first – but not last – goal of the day.
The Ops defence had little to do, and when called upon, the sterling line of Crableston, Goshford and Borris were quick to snuff out any threats and leave the robust form of Keeper Stuart Tray with not much to do apart from barking commands from the back line.
A half-time team talk to look to tighten up on the home side’s passing and play appeared to have paid off with a much more structured and determined Ops taking the game to the visitors. Some great connecting play saw more efforts on goal, a deft pass from Mjölnir was narrowly missed by the smallest of margins by skipper Kennedy – a
player having a great season and clearly enjoying his hockey, but finding a goal elusive today. But, an increase to the Ops tally was inevitable with a another great short corner play seeing Mjölnir notch up his second and shortly after a further corner saw a confident injection from Messy that was deftly punched forward by the ever-imposing Mjölnir to the terrier-like Beemian to tap in at the far post for an almost carbon copy goal from the previous week. In a short space of time, the Ops were four to no reply.
The visitors, clearly rattled now, although perhaps now resigned to a loss, were nevertheless resolute in looking to find a way back in, but time and again met with determined defending from the front to snuff out any threats – a real testament to the Sevens’ teamwork, a hallmark of their play this season.
Yet another short corner saw textbook play across the D for Borris to deftly stroke the ball past the keeper in an exact copy of his goal from the previous week: 5-0. And, with the clock winding down, that man Mjölnir once again found himself in space and rifled his hattrick home…meaning once more he was in the chair for a jug of beer – this season is costing that boy a fortune.
At the crowded post-match press conference, the skipper was once again full of praise for his team: “For the third week now we’ve put six past our opponents, only this time with a clean sheet. Tray, our keeper, had very little on his plate today with no shots on target, no short corners to clear and not much else to do than to contemplate his evening plans, such was the quality of our outfield play. For the first half we were perhaps a bit guilty of not connecting with our passes as much or being a bit too eager to seek out goals and trying to play through our opponents, but the second half we were much more cohesive, even Luce Cannon was more on script this week and Simpo even managed to avoid any altercations or warnings from the Umps, so a great day’s work all-round. Once again, every player put in a shift and demonstrated to the club spectators why we’re the club’s most popular team and, for now at least, leading the division.
I also want to give a special mention to the pitch-side fans with some of their innovative support, which was noticed and, I believe, features on the televised footage, around 4hrs and 50 minutes in when I noticed what they were doing – what a lovely bunch of coconuts they were!”