North London Crickets vs Camden Athletic 30/11/03

      North London Crickets continued their sensational unbeaten run with an emphatic win. The crickets also claimed their second consecutive clean sheet despite changes at the back. With Salmon Ali resting a slight knock, and Patrick Mills otherwise engaged, Craig Gaffney and Fernando Cuevas filled in at the back.

      Having beaten their opponents earlier in the season 8-2, the crickets started confident of an easy victory. This showed in a dreadful first 10 minutes as the crickets looked casual in the extreme and made the lacklustre Camden Athletic look like cup title contenders. The crickets soon got themselves together however and started passing the ball round on the astro turf perfectly suited to the crickets passing game.

      Just 15 minutes into the game, crickets snatched the lead with a well taken volley from Buffery, from a headed clearance from the ‘solid’ Athletic central defender. The crickets hungry for more passed the ball round with ease, but the ball in the final third lacked decisive penetration. With the crickets having almost all the possession, a second goal was always on the cards. A cross from Buffery lingering on the right flank was laid off superbly form Nicholson. While all around were screaming “shoot” Nicholson kept his composure and laid the ball of to the onrushing Robinson who drove the ball low into the bottom left corner.

      The crickets with continuing pressure struggled to find the decisive pass, but always looked certain to extend their lead. Amongst all the cricket’s pressure, Athletic broke away down the Crickets right side.  flamboyant and greedy striker Juninio cut in from the bar line but fired straight at keeper Hall, in one of his only touches of the first half.

      Five minutes before half time, Wakeford’s hard work paid off as he chased down a poor back pass and clipped the ball past the half hearted attempt form Athletics’ keeper. 3-0 at half time and the Crickets were cruising, if slightly disappointed it wasn’t more. The second half brought around much more of the same.

      The crickets flooded Athletic’s half with chance after chance, but wayward finishing let them down. Many great chances were missed, the most memorable of which was a sliding shot by top scorer Wakeford from a cross form wide right, where it seemed harder to miss than to score, but against all the odds the ball sailed over the cross bar from 2 yards out.

      It all got too much for wakeford, who retired back to centre back, to allow solid hard man Cass Nicholson to go into midfield. Nicholson’s tireless hard work was rewarded as a calculated through ball form Van Hale was slotted expertly home. 4-0 and more changes took place. In a desperate attempt to liven Hall’s game, Van Hale joined Wakeford at the back and proceeded to do a hilarious impression of a dying whale as he headed clear. With full time drawing near and yet more chances missed a shock breakaway let  striker through on goal, only to be denied as Hall tipped over the cross bar.

      A second clean sheet was fully deserved as a make-shift back line worked well together. And was a day when a cooler head in front of goal would have surely brought about a cricket score. 

      Match report by 1 very bored keeper!