3rd XI 7 - 0 vs Old Tollingtonians Res (a) AFA Cup

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An early contender for goal of the season from @drewdawson_01 , in the 3's 7-0 victory yesterday. #freekick #southernamateurleague #coyvs #grassrootsfootball #crouchend #crouchendvampires

A post shared by Crouch End Vampires FC (@crouchendvampires) on Sep 16, 2018 at 1:55am PDT

AFA Junior Cup | Preliminary Round
After a great pre-season and a big first win in the league it was time to start our cup campaign. Who doesn’t like a good old cup and possibly a famous Vampire final?

Old Tollingtonians the opposition. We turned up to Highgate woods at 1:15 for a 2pm kick off expecting a waiting, eager, pumped up opposition. Instead we was greeted by a BBQ, 20 dogs and a load of rugrats playing on our pitch. No Goals, no footballs,  no oppo, zilch. All that waited was the oppositions kit laying in their changing room. All we could think was they see the famous 3’s come marching through the tree line and scarpered to save their dignity before the inevitable happened. Well they should have to be fair. But they actually turned up about 15 minutes before kick off with the park rangers trailing behind with the goals. Game on............or maybe not. Any game against a Crouch End Xl needs a ref. But today he decided not to show. After lots of phone calls and discussions they agreed to ref the game. However! We didn’t have a whistle so Drew Dawson came up with the idea that the Ref shouted “REF” when he wanted the game stopped. One minute in and every player shouted ref. I don’t think this is gunna work. Maybe a more suitable word like “stop” might work. And that it did. 

From the first “whistle” we dominated the game. We’ve been winning all season but not playing the football I expect of these players. But this game we did and the first goal was something to admire. Reece Haynes doing a nice one two in the middle of the park with Dan Dawson. Then continuing on to thread a perfectly waited pass onto Ryan Lyttle down the right. Who took it to the line and cut back for Andreas Bryant who finished like a pro. For the 2nd goal it was Alldis doing the cutting back and Bryant again being the man in the right place with another tidy finish. The 3rd was a favour returned as Bryant thread through Alldis who tucked under the keeper to surely put us in the clear. “STOP” shouts the ref as half time looms. 

We came out the second half to find that 3 young Tolly players have had enough of running around whilst we pass it round them and have f*cked off home. No club needs players like that. They’re honestly better off without them. 3-0 up and now playing against 10 men. Was always game over. But we couldn’t get complacent. And we killed the game with a goals from Dan Dawson (pen), Reece Haynes and Andreas Bryant who deservedly got his hat trick. Something to put on his tinder profile to impress the ladies (swallows pride). Last but not least was a goal out of the top draw. A free kick arose about 30/35 yards out. “Let me smash it” asked younger, less talented sibling Drew Dawson. And that he did. And what a thunder-bastard of a hit it was. To make it worse it was caught on camera. The only thing I get caught on camera is a missed penalty in a quarter final. Never mind. Superb performance from the boys. And another clean sheet for the boys too. Shout out to Igs aka Groot, who hasn’t had a shot on target in 3 games but still manages to have a smile on his face every game. Just hope he’s awake when that time comes around and he’s needed. Finchleians next in the league. They don’t get much bigger. COYVS!!!!

TEAM: Igli Gjata, Andrew Dawson âš½, Dan Alldis âš½, Daniel Phillips, Dean Appleyard, Ryan Lyttle, Daniel Dawson âš½, Ben Coghlan, Adrian Vazquez Camacho, Reece Horn-Haynes, Andreas Bryant ⚽⚽⚽, Rob Handleigh