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For those unfortunate fans who were unable to make the game today , the "Terrors" gave a performance that was one of the best this season and certainly up there with the two against Bishops Stortford. A goal down after four minutes, Luke sent of after 39 minutes and disaster seemed on the cards, young Bobby Aspinall came on in goal at the expense of Billy Marshal and he nearly saved the resultant penalty kick, going to his left and getting a hand to it which was just not strong enough to save it.
From then on the ten men of Tooting were equal to, and sometimes better than there eleven men opponents, and with a little more luck might have won the game.
Rightfully so the "Terrors" were applauded of the pitch, not only by the faithfull, but the Guernsey supporters as well, and I do not mean just a few, at least three quarters of the very full stand stayed behind giving the type of appreciation usually saved for the home team.
In the bar afterward`s, talking to one of the the Guernsey directors, he thought the team would have been worthy winners, and this thought was also mentioned to me by several Guernsey suppors, praise indeed, and well deserved.
I do not wish to single out any one in particular because all ten, played as if there lives depended on the result, but two of our youngest players deserve a special mention if only for thga fact they played above there years and experience,
Joel Sebuliba playing at left back and Saidou Khan playing in midfield, who again according to one of the directors, he thought was man of the match instead of the Guernsey player chosen, praise indeed.
So once again thank you all you guys for making us feel so proud to be a "Tooting" supporter, and a special request to Steve Adkins, if you happen to read this forum, please do everything in your power to keep this team together for next season, for with a few additions, a playoff place at least is beckoning.
signed, a very happy old ( with the emphasis on the old ) Terror.
Boy what a day.!
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Have to agree with most of what Alan says here. It was a fantastic team performance which had circumstances been different could on another day have justifiably merited bringing all 3 points home. Sadly though it was not to be. It is difficult after that performance to single any individuals out however having said that I would agree with Alan that playing at RIGHT back, probably his more natural position, Joel Sebiluba put in a tremendous performance, no doubt the best so far of the handful of appearances he has made for us. And in the middle of the park, the dominance of Bash Alimi in breaking up their play and winning virtually every 50/50 challenge allowed his central midfield partner Saidou Khan to demonstrate his natural ability to create time and space for himself to stroke the ball around the pitch or run with it at his feet whenever chose.
And although he didn't actually have a great deal to do during the 50 minutes he was on the field due to the excellence of the other 9 in front of him, young keeper Bobby Aspinall deserves a mention too. Making his first competitive appearance for the senior team there were no signs of nerves. His handling was confident and competent, he almost kept the penalty out and in the build up to Guernsey's winner, made an excellent save from the initial shot down low to his left but sadly the tiring legs of our defenders were not able to get to the ball ahead of the advancing Guernsey striker who popped up to secure the three points
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You are correct Tim, it was a long day and I submitted my message at 10.30 last night, now you will have to excuse me as I am going to lie down.
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The view from the other end :
Guernsey overcame being pegged back twice to record their fifth win in a row, beating Tooting & Mitcham United 3-2 at Footes Lane.
Dave Rihoy pounced on a defensive mistake after just three minutes to put the Sarnians in front - Rihoy scoring for the fourth match in a row.
But Frankie Sawyer sprung the Green Lions' offside trap 11 minutes later and superbly lobbed Chris Tardif to equalise.
Tardif made several blocks in the first half to prevent the visitors taking the lead, while Liam Mahon blocked a shot on the line.
GFC were back in front before half-time when Terrors goalkeeper Luke Badiali was sent off for headbutting Marc McGrath on 37 minutes. After a three-minute delay the striker dusted himself off to find the corner from the spot for his 40th strike in a green shirt.
Five minutes into the second half, United were level again when Sawyer capitalised on a rare mistake by Tardif, who missed his catch to allow the striker to smash home.
But GFC showed their character again and found a winner with just under 10 minutes remaining when McGrath was first to react to the rebound after Aspinall had saved from substitute Ross Allen.
Guernsey survived a nervy ending to equal their best run of wins in Ryman South.
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Draw your own conclusions from the video evidence about Badiali's incident but giving a penalty when Badiali was pushed/kicked whatever by the Guernsey forward ??? Surely we should have had the free kick ? Ah well. At least their manager Tony Vance admitted that we were the best team on the day !
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Luke has apologised on twitter for his behaviour and the sending off yesterday
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Hugely proud of our boys, apart from a couple who let us down but we'll forgive them this time.
I saw the best and worst of the island over the weekend. After the splendour of the St.Pierre Park Hotel & Golf Resort where my bed was so big it had it's own Guernsey postcode ( gy1 8ed ) gymnasium, sauna, swimming pool, steam room, jacuzzi, bar, 24 hour room service I could go on but you get my drift.......to the Harbour Lights public house next to the bus terminal in St.Peters Port......'Man Alive', what a sh*thole, I can honestly say it's the first pub I've been in (including all of the pubs in Mitcham) where the clientele were so scruffy if Dave Irons and Steve Adkins had walked in it would actually have raised the tone of the place !!!!
Top booze fuelled weekend, hope we get them away again this August or next May.
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There is no doubt in my mind that we play better against good footballing sides, and Guernsey are certainly a team that don't try to kick you off the park. It's a tragedy that a basic error cost us an early goal and a moment of madness put us down to ten men.
However the response by our team was wonderful. We should be proud of all the players who worked so hard to keep us in the match in the second half.
Good video coverage for anybody not at the game, and an accurate comment at the end by the Guernsey manager. Lovely reaction from the Guernsey crowd as we came off the pitch.
Great day apart from the result. We deserved better.
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The Guernsey manager stated in his post match interview that apart from ten minutes we were by far the better side. Unfortunately for us and fortunately for them, those ten minutes were the first five minutes and the last five minutes. The lads can be proud of their performance. A fantastic weekend all round!!! Can't make Cockfosters game, but will return for the very tough game against Burgess Hill this weekend. See you all on Saturday!!!!
CRAIG TANNERS BLACK AND WHITE ARMY!!!
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Allow me please to be a little contentious - well why not on a Monday morning.
I have not yet seen the video and I don't doubt the fine reporting of the courageous performance put in by the lads.
However.........the actions of the skipper almost certainly cost us 3 points against Carshalton on NYD. And the scoreline suggests the same thing here.
Discipline under Craig & Adam at the start of their reign was a revelation compared to what we had seen in recent seasons. Gone were the stupid bookings for needless tackles and petulent dissent.
But all that nonsense stuff has galloped, not crept, back in and now we are as bad as before, including swarming round the ref doin much swearing. And it is costing us points we can't afford to give away. Shame.
To clarify, I fully accept that a defender will, on occasions, have to 'take one for the team'. Even including a straight ref for a desperate, last ditch, certain goal saving tackle. That is not what I am on about.
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Do you not feel that this current change in behaviour might be bourne out of frustration, regarding the run of results, combined with sometimes being too "pumped up" with the will to win.
Personally as frustrating as it is, I still think we are nowhere near as bad as some teams this season, agree sendings off do not help the team, but in contradiction, on the two ocassions when it has happened we have played very very well, perhaps ten men is the way to go?
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As so often happens in football, the referees seem to give the second offence rather than the initial first foul., and that s what happened to our keeper in the Guernsey game. If you look at their video it clearly shows him looking at our keeper & their player. He should have seen their player holding the keepers jersey, & thats when Luke head butted the player. The sending off was correct decision, but the penalty was wrong. It should have been a free kick to us.
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Not seen the video yet however from my recollection of seeing the incident "live", Geoff is spot on. Luke was no doubt "interfered with" by the Guernsey striker and should have been awarded a free kick. However his re-action to what had been done to him was over the top and inappropriate and he really left the referee with no choice but to red card him. Had we been awarded the free kick to re-start the game following the sending off with the score still at 1-1 would we have gone on to win the game? Given the way we were playing up until that point, quite possibly, yes.