Cuckoo King
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Full Match Report - Marsden v OverthorpeMarsden AFC 3 – 2 Overthorpe
Marsden were looking to bounce back after their first league defeat of 2009 away at Campion the week before, they were also looking to get some revenge on their opponents after their controversial win in the reverse fixture which saw Sean Gant suspended for 5 weeks after a mass brawl saw the defender sent off despite only acting in self defence after being attacked from behind!
The visitors started brightly with the ever busy Scott Minto hitting a well struck shot a couple of feet over the bar straight from the kick off! The cuckoos struggled to get into the game and every time they started to mount a meaningful attack they were either stopped by the Overthorpe defence or the ineptitude of the ever consistent (consistently shambolic) referee, Mr Stuart Ramsden! The home side found themselves a goal down after ½ an hour when Shane Kelly failed to step up with the rest of the defence and the striker broke through the offside trap to fire a low left footed drive into the corner past Ash Connor. Marsden tried to respond but found very little.
After a royal b*llocking from manager Gavin Connor at the break the Cuckoo’s responded brilliantly and were level 3 minutes after the re-start after a great piece of skill and ingenuity leading to a goal from Dave Brennan. Ryan Taylor’s tough tackle and ball down the flank to Matt Davies unlocked the Overthorpe defence, Davies’ neat chip to Brennan left the forward 20 yards out with his back to goal, Brennan’s first touch saw him leave his first marker and facing the goal, his second touch was a delightful dink over the next defenders head, after taking the dropping ball in his stride to leave him 1 on 1, the striker didn’t disappoint the large crowd (mainly due to the good weather) by slotting past the on-rushing keeper!
Marsden then dominated the game but failed to again take their chances, Firstly Carl Sykes’ wild shot flew past the keeper far post, Matt Davies was also guilty after a good move down the left saw Davies with some time but he took his shot early and lashed over the bar from 15 yards but the biggest culprit was Kelly who ghosted in around the back to meet a perfect free kick from Richard Conway only to miss the target, unchallenged from only 6 yards out!
Marsden were made to pay for these missed chances when Overthorpe took the lead after 2 bizarre decisions in succession from Mr Ramsden, firstly the ref adjudged Kelly to have fouled Minto, then as the free kick was knocked in 2 Overthorpe players were offside, 1 of which headed home past Connor (with a good header to be fair) leaving the Cuckoo’s with a serious sense of ‘Déjà vu’ after losing the previous weeks game in similar circumstances.
Thankfully a culmination of Mr Ramsden’s lack of fitness and knowledge of the laws of the game and the persistence and self belief of the Cuckoo’s was just enough to save the Cuckoos from an embarrassing result. Manager Gavin Connor’s decision to push Shane Kelly upfront for the last 5 minutes paid dividends when the make shift centre forward won a penalty with just 3 minutes to go after the Overthorpe left back had brought Kelly down needlessly, Up stepped the returning James Rayner to slot home his 12th goal of the season sending the keeper the wrong way. Rayner however wasn’t done there and he secured all 3 points for the Cuckoo’s with a minute to go!
After a scrambled ball wasn’t cleared by the Overthorpe defence Paul Storer knocked the ball back into the box albeit after a deflection off a defenders arse, which fell kindly at the feet of Rayner who was a good 3-4 yards offside (however the referee decided that the deflection meant that the defender passed the ball to him so he was onside) the striker as calm and composed as ever just brought it down and lifted it into the far corner leaving the keeper stranded.
On the balance of play and the endeavour shown in wanting to win the game I feel that the result went the right way in the end and the Cuckoo’s are back on track plus 3 more wins guarantees them mathematical safety!
A good game for the neutral but a very bad advertisement for the standard of referees allowed to officiate games in the County Am league (not that there are any worse than this character)! The league would be better off not giving this joker any more games as his decisions are questionable at best, his fitness is well below par and he has an ego bigger than Jose Mourinho’s!
It is annoying for players who put their heart and soul plus their own free time and money not only into the game but also into training sessions all for the love of the game, to have an idiot like this turn up, swan around like he is god for an hour and a half then piss off with £25 quid in his arse pocket!
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Cuckoo King
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All feedback on my final thoughts would be appreciated, also if there are any overthorpe on here your feedback on the match report would be welcomed!
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hand of god
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Good report shit bag but i think the ref was Stuart Ramsden.
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Rocky
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Yep it was the ever reliable Stuart Ramsden. God help our ressies on sat!
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Cuckoo King
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Sorry, Sorry, Sorry I will c e it now!
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