Kings Arsenal in match report shocker
A second-half comeback wasn’t enough for the ridiculously named Muggsy Bogues FC to beat fans’ favourites Kings Arsenal, on Sunday.
The Kings raced into a 6-2 lead, but decided to make a game of it after the break by letting the Premiership’s bottom feeders back into the encounter.
After last week’s glut of drop outs, Kings Arsenal fielded a familiar looking line up and even had Luke Tinklin back in between the sticks for the second match in a row.
Oscarin Castiblanco was making a welcome return, even though he kept playing in defence during the opening period rather than up front where all Kings Arsenal aficionados want to see him play.
For some, it was their first match in weeks, but it didn’t take the Kings long to rediscover their swagger as they cut Muggsy to shreds with some smart interplay.
They were soon a few goals to the good and the lead came from an unlikely source as Roberto Ekesi found the net, not once, but twice, with two clinical finishes at the far post.
Chris Calaharn, back from popping over to Colombia for a couple of weeks, increased the advantage, on his way to a hat-trick, by tapping in a Mark Tinklin pull back and Oscar registered his first goal of 2012.
However, Kings Arsenal aren’t known for making things easy for themselves and let Muggsy Bogues back into the game in bizarre circumstances.
First, a Muggsy was given a free run in on goal and found the bottom corner and they pulled another back thanks to some typically comical Kings defending.
Luke made a save at the edge of the box, but couldn’t get it clear, neither could Mark or James Payne, and the two defenders could only watch on helplessly as the ball trickled over the goal line.
A goalkeeping error at the other end allowed Mark to make amends straight away when he disposed the wayward stopper and found the bottom corner from down town.
When the referee’s half-time whistle went, the Kings were 6-2 up and seemingly just another 20 minutes away from a routine victory.
However, a comfortable win just isn’t the Kings Arsenal way and it was time to let Muggsy Bogues back into the game, just to make things interesting.
Slack defending from Oscar and Roberto was punished by a quick-fire brace and Muggsy thought they were in with a shout.
Meanwhile, Kings Arsenal were enjoying the majority of possession and they got a decisive seventh goal, but in a style that bore little resemblence to the flowing football of the first half.
James Britton, after working off his American Christmas in the first half, crossed from the right, the ball hit a few dozen defenders and there was Chris to turn in his third of the game.
Never one to miss a cliché, this writer will say it was a real poacher’s effort and in addition to the hat-trick for Chris, it was a third assist of the evening for James.
The match may now have been won, but there was still time for another, memorable defensive lapse, as Luke decided against playing a simple, one-yard square pass to Mark on the edge of the box, opting instead to pass it to an unmarked Muggsy attacker – he scored.
Gary Neville would not have been impressed.
That made it 7-5 and it should have been nine for the Kings, but physics decided to keep two thunderous Oscar efforts out of the net, when the ball hit the bar and bounced on the goal-line twice in quick succession.
The win means Kings Arsenal are unbeaten in 2012 and are fourth with three games left of the mini-season, four points away from top and four points clear of last.
*Events may have happened in a different order than described. Blame the crack in space time that has opened above the tv.
The defending at times was as bad as this:
