Report

Background:

Due to a number of last minute drop outs, the end of season final game of  Mottingham YMCA Vs Cent YMCA was placed on hold.  Phil worked some magic to arrange a last minute game versus Southern Vets league side Santos FC versus a mix bag of both YMCA both sides + friends.

First Half:

Game started well but it was clear that Santos were comfortable with the ball at their feet, distributing with relative ease from one side of the park to the other and with 20 mins gone following some intricate passing from the middle of the Park, Santos forward pressed forward and were rewarded with a sweet strike to the far left hand corner – 0-1 

The remainder the half at times left Cent YMCA chasing shadows but Santos could not increase their slender lead. However against the run of play it was probably YMCA who had the better of the chances, striking the right hand post twice and certainly should have had a penalty for hand ball, all  within an exciting closing 15.

Half Time: 0-1

Half Time & Second half:

Some inspirational comments but Gary, Ian and Phil and others at the break as well as some very nice oranges gave a sense of self belief in the second half .

The restart  continued in similar fashion the end of the first:   a well contested / battle was in play with neither side adding to the score line.

Overall a good battling performance against a strong but slightly aging side, however all that will be remembered in years to come in the result – YMCA(0) vs Santos (1)
 

Result:

Narrow loss 0-1 – on the balance of play probably a fair result

Special mention given to Paul – Splendid game as ref 

Final Point

I would try to name the starting 11 for YMCA  but I will be in no doubt get names and positions wrong; so the starting line was a mixture of Cent & Mottingham YMCA with Gary in goal and Luigi playing as left back.