Birthday Beaut for Baby Face
Alan McDermott, 22 November 2009 00:09
Ninth team defensive stalwart Petr
Holecek celebrated his 36th birthday in fine style, slamming
home a spectacular injury time equaliser to salvage a point
for his team against Lloyds at Chiswick, his first ever goal
for the Poly.
A side massively weakened by absences and
injuries looked doomed when Lloyds took a 2-1 lead with
fifteen minutes to go and shortly afterwards Poly were
reduced to ten men by an injury to returnee Chris
Kyriacou.
Poly had taken the lead mid way through the
first half via a Holmes Reed header after good work on the
right wing by Mo and Grim Reaper Tom, but they had been
pegged back before the break after a lucky richochet set up a
simple chance for the muscular Lloyds target man to
convert.
Overall though it was a spluttering
performance and in the second half the unfamilar lineup
struggled to make any impression, though substitute Pete
Frattura wasted one excellent chance to restore the lead
after Tom W set him up. Our penalty area was the busier
in the second half and we were thankful for some last ditch
challenges to keep our goal intact for most of the
half.
The Lloyds breakthrough came in controversial
circumstances, with Poly feeling that Petr had been pushed in
the face as he tried to clear the ball before it was
scrambled home. However there is nothing like a sense
of injustice to help squeeze a little bit more determination
out of tired legs and so it was that in the last ten minutes,
though now down to ten men, we still managed to find energy
to mount several late attacks.
We thought that the last chance might have
gone as Tom's desperate effort to keep a ball in play failed,
but the ref ruled that it had actually come off a Lloyds
player for a corner. And so it was that luck seemed to
even itself out, Lloyds could only clear to the edge of the
box and Petr steamed in to strike his equaliser in from the
edge of the box, right in to the top corner with a little
kiss of the goalpost on the way. A goal of the season
contender in Poly terms and a dream way to celebrate a
birthday.
Team
Dan Buckland
Chris Kyriacou
Sweety
Petr Holecek
Neal Gordon
Mo Chicharro
Tom Glavey
Pete Bamforth
Rob Holmes Reed
Dusan (sub Pete Frattura)
Tom Watkins
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