Post by Dave on Apr 17, 2010 18:03:21 GMT
It’s a good job I decided to check with Ant as he was about to leave for his match the time of the kick-off, as I had misread the fixtures list and the game was not at Ipplepen, but bakers Park Newton Abbot.
As I drove over the post Merse made last night about a young player breaking his leg, brought back to me the very last game I watched at Barkers Park a few seasons ago. That day I was to witness the very worst broken leg I have ever seen and one that the young player had to stay in hospital for a week or two as he had to under go surgery on his leg.
The lad was a young black teenager and played in defence and stood out in the games he played because he was such a good footballer and he also never pulled out of a tackle. He went in for a 50/50 ball and there was nothing wrong with the tackle either player made, but the cracking noise of his leg breaking echoed around Bakers Park.
I went on to comfort him as I have never heard anyone scream so much in pain and thankfully the ambulance did not take to long to get to the park and when it did I stood back and let them get on with their job.
I moved a bit further away as I could no longer stand his screams of pain and as you might expect I ended up crying for him as it hurts me so much to see people being in such pain, I had to phone Carol as I knew I could offload how I was feeing onto her.
The young lad came and watched a game I was at a few months later, he showed me a picture of his leg taken just after the operation and it was horrible to look at as his whole leg had been opened up to try and repair the damage.
Sadly his face was rather bashed up that day, as a week before some thugs had jumped him in Newton Abbot and gave him a mindless and senseless beating, he sure was not having a very good time of things, but he does have a great personality and was able to laugh and joke about it all to me.
I parked in a side road near the cemetery and came into Bakers Park at the entrance where the tennis courts are, the old toilet block was all boarded up and looked in a very sorry state and there is not a large fenced off playground for the kids to play in. Mind you during the first half of the game I thought I must have been on the popside, some of the swear words coming from the play park were as bad as you will hear in our ground.
This was a game between the team at the top of the table Ipplepen and mid table W.B.B played in glorious afternoon sunshine with just a slight breeze. Ipplepen were a bit slow to get their game going and for the first ten minutes it was W.B.B who was playing the better football in the middle of the park without really ever creating anything.
Ant had one good shot just go wide of the post and then W.B.B took a surprise lead, Ipplepen lost the ball to cheaply on the centre circle and the ball was hit out wide and toward the corner flag with the W.B.B winger in overdrive trying to get onto the ball, he did and had all the time in the world to put in a perfect cross for W.B.B’s no10 who was the tallest player on the pitch to score with a simple far post header.
Their lead was only last a few minutes and from a corner Ant headed the ball against the post and with the aid of the post (see picture) fired the ball over the line. It was at this point of the game I was getting a bit angry as every time the ball was cleared up field the W.B.B defenders were kicking lumps out of Ants shins, but to his credit he just stuck to his game and they simply could not handle him or stop him running the show upfront for Ipplepen.
W.B.B’s no5 was so busy trying to foul Ant and man handle Ant it nearly cost his team letting in a third goal, he clearly was trying to just take Ant out of the game, but really clever movement by Ant saw him have the ball at his feet just inside the left hand side of the box, he played a perfect ball to his strike partner who was standing on the penalty spot who hit the ball cleanly only to see it crash against the crossbar and over.
The same player should have made it three just a minute later, a long ball over the top saw him clear with no W.B.B player having any chance of catching him, all he had to do was take the ball into the box and shoot , but he shot from outside and his shot went well over the bar.
Ant then went and got his second goal, a fine individual effort, he was strong on the ball and held of his marker and then turned and went past him into the box and fired a sweet shot giving the keeper no chance at all.
Ant was to turn provider for Ipplepen's third goal, once again holding of the much bigger center half and turning past him and going into the box he laid the ball on a plate for Ipplepens’s no 7 to fire home.
So a good first half by Ipplepen who had reduced W.B.B to just the one effort on goal they scored from and at the start of the second half it was W.B.B who were playing neat passing football in the middle of the park, but could find no way past the very strong Ipplepen defence who were keeping a very high line up the pitch.
Ant should have had a hat trick after receiving the ball out wide from a throw-in, the big centre half came out to close him down on the touchline, but Ant used his skill to get past him and into the box, he hit a great shot across the keeper and it was going in near the far post when up popped his strike partner to tap the ball over the line.
Ant had a great diving header saved and then played a big part in Ipplepen’s fifth goal. The ball came in from a corner and Ant headed it down to the feet of one of his players, he took a shot it got blocked and the ball came to Ant who hit a powerful shot that was also blocked, only the ball fell to the Ipplepen player who had the first shot and this time he made on mistake with his shot.
The ref blew for the end of the game and it was time to switch on my radio and check how my second team were doing, the first words I heard were subs were about to be made to protect the lead and so I thought we must be wining by one nil or something, I then heard we were three up and ran and got all out of breath nearly the whole lengh of the part to go and tell Ant the score only for him to say he already knew the score.
Bakers Park
Ants first strike at goal.
Ants first goal
Ant shoots again and just over
Ants second goal
Second half
Ant's brave and nearly gets his head kicked in as he gets a header on target.
The header from a corner that goal number five came from
Time to beat one more player and get a shot away.
As I drove over the post Merse made last night about a young player breaking his leg, brought back to me the very last game I watched at Barkers Park a few seasons ago. That day I was to witness the very worst broken leg I have ever seen and one that the young player had to stay in hospital for a week or two as he had to under go surgery on his leg.
The lad was a young black teenager and played in defence and stood out in the games he played because he was such a good footballer and he also never pulled out of a tackle. He went in for a 50/50 ball and there was nothing wrong with the tackle either player made, but the cracking noise of his leg breaking echoed around Bakers Park.
I went on to comfort him as I have never heard anyone scream so much in pain and thankfully the ambulance did not take to long to get to the park and when it did I stood back and let them get on with their job.
I moved a bit further away as I could no longer stand his screams of pain and as you might expect I ended up crying for him as it hurts me so much to see people being in such pain, I had to phone Carol as I knew I could offload how I was feeing onto her.
The young lad came and watched a game I was at a few months later, he showed me a picture of his leg taken just after the operation and it was horrible to look at as his whole leg had been opened up to try and repair the damage.
Sadly his face was rather bashed up that day, as a week before some thugs had jumped him in Newton Abbot and gave him a mindless and senseless beating, he sure was not having a very good time of things, but he does have a great personality and was able to laugh and joke about it all to me.
I parked in a side road near the cemetery and came into Bakers Park at the entrance where the tennis courts are, the old toilet block was all boarded up and looked in a very sorry state and there is not a large fenced off playground for the kids to play in. Mind you during the first half of the game I thought I must have been on the popside, some of the swear words coming from the play park were as bad as you will hear in our ground.
This was a game between the team at the top of the table Ipplepen and mid table W.B.B played in glorious afternoon sunshine with just a slight breeze. Ipplepen were a bit slow to get their game going and for the first ten minutes it was W.B.B who was playing the better football in the middle of the park without really ever creating anything.
Ant had one good shot just go wide of the post and then W.B.B took a surprise lead, Ipplepen lost the ball to cheaply on the centre circle and the ball was hit out wide and toward the corner flag with the W.B.B winger in overdrive trying to get onto the ball, he did and had all the time in the world to put in a perfect cross for W.B.B’s no10 who was the tallest player on the pitch to score with a simple far post header.
Their lead was only last a few minutes and from a corner Ant headed the ball against the post and with the aid of the post (see picture) fired the ball over the line. It was at this point of the game I was getting a bit angry as every time the ball was cleared up field the W.B.B defenders were kicking lumps out of Ants shins, but to his credit he just stuck to his game and they simply could not handle him or stop him running the show upfront for Ipplepen.
W.B.B’s no5 was so busy trying to foul Ant and man handle Ant it nearly cost his team letting in a third goal, he clearly was trying to just take Ant out of the game, but really clever movement by Ant saw him have the ball at his feet just inside the left hand side of the box, he played a perfect ball to his strike partner who was standing on the penalty spot who hit the ball cleanly only to see it crash against the crossbar and over.
The same player should have made it three just a minute later, a long ball over the top saw him clear with no W.B.B player having any chance of catching him, all he had to do was take the ball into the box and shoot , but he shot from outside and his shot went well over the bar.
Ant then went and got his second goal, a fine individual effort, he was strong on the ball and held of his marker and then turned and went past him into the box and fired a sweet shot giving the keeper no chance at all.
Ant was to turn provider for Ipplepen's third goal, once again holding of the much bigger center half and turning past him and going into the box he laid the ball on a plate for Ipplepens’s no 7 to fire home.
So a good first half by Ipplepen who had reduced W.B.B to just the one effort on goal they scored from and at the start of the second half it was W.B.B who were playing neat passing football in the middle of the park, but could find no way past the very strong Ipplepen defence who were keeping a very high line up the pitch.
Ant should have had a hat trick after receiving the ball out wide from a throw-in, the big centre half came out to close him down on the touchline, but Ant used his skill to get past him and into the box, he hit a great shot across the keeper and it was going in near the far post when up popped his strike partner to tap the ball over the line.
Ant had a great diving header saved and then played a big part in Ipplepen’s fifth goal. The ball came in from a corner and Ant headed it down to the feet of one of his players, he took a shot it got blocked and the ball came to Ant who hit a powerful shot that was also blocked, only the ball fell to the Ipplepen player who had the first shot and this time he made on mistake with his shot.
The ref blew for the end of the game and it was time to switch on my radio and check how my second team were doing, the first words I heard were subs were about to be made to protect the lead and so I thought we must be wining by one nil or something, I then heard we were three up and ran and got all out of breath nearly the whole lengh of the part to go and tell Ant the score only for him to say he already knew the score.
Bakers Park
Ants first strike at goal.
Ants first goal
Ant shoots again and just over
Ants second goal
Second half
Ant's brave and nearly gets his head kicked in as he gets a header on target.
The header from a corner that goal number five came from
Time to beat one more player and get a shot away.