Dub made it two in a row on Sunday and gave their promotion hopes a great boost with an impressive second half display against a Barnfield United team looking to snatch 2nd place in the Division 2 table. Over the course of the season Dub have been accused by other teams of limiting themselves to the long ball up front... and if this truly is the case then Barnfield have gone a step further; never before has a team relied more on one player since Steven Gerrard first donned a Liverpool jersey. Time after time Barnfield played the ball up to their striker (and captain) in the hope of him grabbing a goal.
Dub began with their typical slow start to the match and took their time to get up to speed with proceedings. Dub's first clear cut chance came when McCann was put in the clear and bearing down on goal; some good defensive work by Barnfield pushed him out wide but some quick thinking by McCann saw him square the ball across the six yard box leaving Hodgkinson with an open goal for a left foot tap in... Hodgkinson however had other ideas and decided he wanted it on his right foot. Before you could say "f**k how the f**king f**k did he f**king miss that?!" the ball was making its way to the car park at record speed. The best was yet to come for the man whose friends call him Hodge-zu.
Surprisingly the Barnfield tactic of "play the ball up to the big fella who could have made it big if he'd stayed off the pies" tactic paid off after 10 mins after a direct ball up to the striker and a little bit of neat turning and footwork produced a goal into the bottom left corner of the net. Dub couldn't say they didn't see it coming but set about grabbing an equaliser.
It wasn't long in coming as the ever reliant McCann set about a loose ball and burst through the Barnfield defence to slot the equaliser past the keeper. The Dub heads went up and it was apparent they were settling into their stride.
Half-time came surprisingly early as big Ron mistook the game he was refereeing for a GAA match and thought he was playing 35 each way. This triggered a plan in Phil's head to solve the problem of sorting out the Barnfield dangerman. The Dub defence were instructed to operate a Tyrone style blanket defence every time the Barnfield striker got the ball, this was an inspired tactic by the stand-in manager which must surely warrant a more full-time position if Art does take the offer of the Liverpool job once Benitez gets the boot. The Barnfield striker was visibly rattled and began losing his temper as well as the ball.
This had a knock-on effect to the rest of the Barnfield team and Dub weren't long in taking the lead, more quick thinking by McCann saw him one-on-one with the keeper and cooly slot it past for his second. Dub were really flying now and the third was only a matter of time. It was a case of the young and old of Dub combining with Andy playing a trademark Scholes-esque ball into the path of Kernan who began to rattle his way through the gears, bearing down on goal he appeared to have ran out of an angle and yet those 50 years of experience shone through and he was able to squeeze the ball into the far side of the net. Was it a shot? Was it a cross? 21 players, 6 subs, a manager and two dogs say it was a cross, Cormac said it was a shot... a shot it was then.
Many supporters thought the game couldn't get any more entertaining after such a well worked goal... little did they underestimate the power of Zinedine Zihodge. Not content with trying (and failing) to conduct the famous Zidane turn (made famous by Zinedine Zidane don't you know) in the first half Hodgkinson thought he would have one more go seeing they were 3-1 up; what happened next will go down in Dub FC history and will be remembered at every Christmas do, poker night, pre and end of season knees-ups that the club ever has. As graceful as a swan Hodgy began the trick placing one foot on the ball and spinning over onto his other foot, unfortunately his footing went at the most in-opportune moment and Zihodge ended up in a mess on the floor... 21 players, 6 subs, a manager and two dogs burst out laughing and continued to do so for quite some time. In fact, Barnfield nearly grabbed a goal because the Dub defence couldn't stand upright from laughing so much.
After about 10 mins the laughter calmed down and Dub comfortably played the game out to a close. 3-1 the final score and Dub can now set their minds on Orchardville next Sunday.
Incidently... there is a film being shown on BBC4 on Wednesday night at 10.00pm all about a one Zinedine Zidane and how he performed over 90 mins against Villareal in the Bernabeu from the view of 14 different cameras in 2006... if someone could tape if for Hodge and show him it before next weeks match we'd all appreciate it.
If only we had 14 cameras on him last Sunday!!!
Squad
Alan Plunkett,
Mark Harvey, Sean Doherty,
Gareth Dickson (sub 70 mins), Donal McCann, Phil Doherty,
Andy Bowd,
Peter McToal,
Liam Elmore,
Chris Hodgkinson, Cormac Kernan (sub 83 mins)
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