Ramblers Win Free School Derby!

The challenge was thrown down to Barcelona by a (manager) Michael full of confidence after his hat trick two weeks. Let's play. Two weeks later, the local (Saturday) Free School derby took place. Although not as intense as the Fla-Flu, AC-Inter, Rangers-Celtic, Arsenal-Spurs or even Singapore-Malaysia, it was still a match neither side wanted to lose with pride at stake - if only for the fact that they would see each other every Saturday for the next year!

Orange had to play 'away' on the smaller rugby pitch would perhaps suited the older Barcelona side more as they were familiar with the pitch and had less space to cover. The Ramblers players arrived incredibly late - I thought there would be many a willing player who wanted to be part of the occasion. After driving from work like Xavi sorry Fernando Alonso, I was only the 7th player available! Players dripped in as the seconds ticked on and it was a formidable team to face the Orange of Barcelona with Fajar making his first appearance in 2009 alongside Chard at the back with Poay making a (rare) effort to be there to add creativity alongside the Gattuso-esque Max and Au. An attacking trident of Ming flanked by Heng & myself saw off the line up and it was one with pace, experience and energy.

Considering the close rivalries between the two teams, it was a surprise to see the first half completely dominated by the team in pale blue. By the time the referee blew his whistle for half time, the only surprise was that there was only a one goal difference between the two teams. The goal had a whiff of controversy about it as Barcelona stopped in anticipation for a free kick after Ming had pulled down/accidentally collided into Wong, Barca's central-defender. However Heng concentrated on the task at hand and whilst everybody else had stopped, he took the opportunity to control the bouncing ball and ram the ball hard and low past goalkeeper Alex.

There were many other chances before that - Derek had the first one but dragged his shot wide of the far post, Ming with his energy had the defence at his mercy twice but failed to work the goalkeeper sufficiently both times whilst Heng travailed hard on the left. However he did get his reward! The midfield worked well enough to crowd out any passing opportunities by Barcelona and it was rare to see them string 3 passes together. I think it was an almighty shock to their team system and I'd imagine they wouldn't like to play against the hard working duo of Max and Au every week. I always thought that Barcelona would struggle to come up with a plan B if plan A didn't work and this proved to be the case.

Their tentative plan B was to hit the ball long which was ridiculous with the pace of Fajar and the reading of Chard protecting Chris. Keong was having no trouble on the right with Derek covering him for extra protection whilst I thought they might use speed of Rajiv to test the legs of Michael on the left. Strangely it was a tactic that they underemployed and whilst they had limited success, Chris really found himself with nothing to do but admiring the sunset behind the opposition's goal. However the best plan of the first half was the pre-determined incredibly short corner routine that Derek and Heng copied from Rooney and Giggs (ManUtd vs Chelsea). It was probably too good - none of the Ramblers's players even mentioned it after the match - which they surely would have if Heng's left footed delivery had been as good as Giggs's!

The second half saw a better Barcelona team come out but whilst they did better in midfield, they found themselves exposed to the pace of young Ramblers's players on the counterattack. However it was old man Derek who gave them early warning but subsequent runs saw Ming with just the keeper to beat whilst Ah Or had a hat-trick of similar chances. The problem with missing chances when you are 1 nil up is that however badly the other team are playing, they will always get themselves one chance - and that could be all they need. Fajar provided that chance with his extravagant gifts failing him as he attempted to dribble through two opponents... on the edge of his own penalty area! After I saw him getting caught and seeing the ex-pro Barcelona striker advance on goal, I had resigned myself to the fact that we would have to fight back to regain the lead.

However Chris did incredibly well to stand up and not give any obvious spaces for the striker to aim for so the striker did what all strikers are trained to do - aim across the goalkeeper for the far post. However Chris's leg deflected the ball out and whilst we were breathing a sigh of relief, he was able to get up on his feet again to save another shot from the rebound. And that was really all he had to do the whole match - it was a sign of great concentration that took Ramblers to the finishing post.

Both teams sensed that was a crucial chance spurned (rather like Darren Bent's 4 yard miss several hours later) and that it was going to be that sort of day. Whilst Barcelona threw men into attack, the defence & revamped midfield fought resolutely (nearly literally in Chard's case!) to give no semblance of a clear chance to the team wearing orange. However the team formerly known as Orange were able to sign off the year of the Rat with a victory & claim the bragging rights to Free School's strongest team... until the next game!

(written by reporter Derek)