2011 / 2012 Season Match Reports

Any captains or other players who wish to send in match reports. Please send them to: Andy Moss and I will put them up here for everyone to read about your glorious victories or dismal defeats.

Index of dates.
Reports listed by w/b Saturdays.

w/b 2011/11/05
w/b 2011/11/12
w/b 2011/11/26
w/b 2011/12/03
w/b 2011/12/10
w/b 2011/12/17
w/b 2012/01/07
w/b 2012/01/14
w/b 2012/01/21
w/b 2012/01/28


Saturday 5th November 2011

Vets 4-1 Alleyns
A fantastic first half hat-trick by man of the match Dazza Nozari saw the Vets overcome a strong and youthful Alleyns side. Dazza's 2nd goal an early contender for the goal of the season, a superb volley into the roof of the net from the edge of the box!
Matt Cannon

Saturday 12th November 2011

HAC 7-5 Vets
A game of 2 halves:

This was the first Vets trip to the Hallowed turf of the HAC in the heart of London, skyscrapers and buildings surrounding the fabulous pitch.

The Bank went 3 up at half time with a volleyed goal by Matt Cannon, a typical bulldozing run with sublime finish by Matt Reynolds and a fabulous chip from Petre Bastar (following much practice in the warm up) and absorbing everything the HAC could throw at them with good tackling, hard work and a great team effort.

During the half time interval the HAC could be heard threatening their own with further spells away from home and having to muck out the horses after the Lord Mayors show. They were ignited into action and were 3 all within 10 mins. The Bank settled things down and again went ahead with a superb finish by Matt Reynolds.

Things then went a bit wonky to say the least, mistakes at the back gifted HAC 3 goals before another was added but this time by a fantastic run and finish by the HAC'S 30 something centre midfield player. Mike Harris then scored a beauty.....and a rarity...as a great run was finished with a RIGHT....YES RIGHT...FOOT SHOT CURLED INTO THE TOP RIGHT HAND CORNER.

Both team had chances to add to their lot before the whistle brought a finish to an exceptional game.

The cud was chewed, along with chips & a chillie across the road.
Matt Cannon

Saturday 26th November 2011

Vets 5-1 BP Meadhurst
After the last 2 dismal results the Bank got back to winning ways.

A fine team talk before the match with threats from the skipper that if he had to he would play left back to sort us out and the return of the mercurial Per, Charlie & Peter steeled the side somewhat.

A scrappy start was settled down by 2 early goals from Mike Harris & Matt Reynolds before we gave away a penalty......2-1.

Finally we started to play some good football and the 3rd was scored by Mike Harris.....a left foot piledriver from 40 yards out which was still rising as it buried itself into the far left hand corner of the net...this surpassed all we have scored so far this season (even Mike's right footer at HAC) and will be hard to beat!

We continued to play some good football in the second half with our stand in Keeper (god the squad is good) Clyde Kellett keeping out all that was thrown, headed, kicked and passed to him!

Matt Cannon scored the 5th goal running the length of the pitch (like a stampeding elephant, thanks Lappy!!) before slotting the ball into the right hand corner.

Some imaginative substitutions saw Mike Harris at left back (as per his threat) Peter Bastar at right back and Mike Ashbury here there and everywhere.
Matt Cannon

Saturday 3rd December 2011

Vets 1-1 Lancing old Boys
December is upon us and so is our first draw of the season, 1-1 against a youthful Lancing Old Boys side.

The Bank started well playing the ball around and went one up following a short corner played out by Mike Harris and finished by Petre Bastar.

Some great runs from Ryan Caine and Matt Reynolds saw some last ditch tackling and saves from the Lancing side keeping it to 1-0 at half time.

With man of the match Mike Ashbery sitting on the bench following the half time oranges the Lancing centre forward ran through to score Lancing's only goal.

Sadly an injury to Cliff Warman saw Mike's rest shortened and him back at the heart of the defence.

Tireless running in midfield from Dazza & Charlie steadied the ship and the Bank had several chances to take the lead with Per Tron back to his best and some astute substitutions saw the front line refreshed.

Lancing soaked up the pressure and 2 great saves by their keeper kept them in the game.

Mike Harris made his weekly appearance at left back before Michael Lap performed heroics with 2 blocks on the line the 2nd at full stretch to turn away a piledriver from a yard out!

A good draw played in a good spirit.
Matt Cannon

Saturday 10th December 2011

Vets 0-3 Old Grammarians
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

There is a song my kids used to sing, "The wheels on the bus go round & round"......ours went round fine for 10 minutes then fell off!!

Things looked good in the warm up with Terry Benson coming to watch, looking trim and astonished by the pre-match talking to by the skipper.

A bright start saw a string of half chances and our day looked bright.

Grammarians had other ideas and chased us down, passed the ball around and were 3 up by half-time following 2 fine goals and an own goal by our own Eagle Eddie....

Try as we might we simply could not string 2 passes together and it felt more like the Alamo than a game of football.

Another outstanding block by Lappy and 4 amazing saves by Eddie kept the scoreline looking less embarrassing than it looked like being!!

It was the first time we didn't score....some would say the referees head had something to do with this as he blocked a Mike Ashbery shot destined for the back of the net....you really had to be there!

Last match next week before we all put on a stone!
Matt Cannon

Saturday 17th December 2011

Vets 1-4 Old Rutlishians
Our last match of 2011 saw us initially on the Records pitch.....team talk and all...before being moved to Lower Redgates where we found a truer surface and less mud!

This match saw the debut of Ilea..a Russian who had previously played for Dynamo Moscow..the average age of the side rose accordingly and the game began.

3-0 down in 30 mins.....same old story of giving the ball away, letting them play and failing to score!...3-1 at half time thanks to a pen!.

The 2nd half saw us dominating but again failing to score and their younger legs won out with them scoring a 4th before the end of the game!

Personally the match was summed up when their centre forward (or should I say one of 5 different forwards they had brought) shook my hand at the end of the game saying he was looking forward to turning 36 this week!.

2012 awaits with hopefully the return of the club Billionaire and some new boots for the forwards!
Matt Cannon

Saturday 7th January 2012

Vets 5-1 Imperial College
2012 brought Imperial College to the Bank, Mike Ashbury white boots (although sadly not for any of the forwards) and the return of our very own Billionaire Keith Champman from a long injury layoff.

Keith started well winning every header, holding the ball up well, passing quickly and then winning a penalty...to his utter amazement the ball was thrown to Matt Cannon who buried his 4th penalty of the season....the penalty takers queue behind Matt lengthens again.

The Bank's passing was much better than in the first half of the season with some great one touch football from Dazza, Charlie and Mike H in particular with Billy running wide down the left and delivering cross after cross.

The Bank continued to dominate and scored a further 2 goals by Mike H and Dazza seeing us into half time 3-0 up.

Weary legs, too much turkey and trimmings saw the squad stretched with an almost new back 4 at the end of the match. Mike A saw his elevation through the team from centre half, to centre mid and then centre forward culminate in a flashing shot only stopped from entering the Brook by the row of sightscreens at the golf course end.

A further goal by Mike H and a headed 5th by Per from a wonderful cross from Matt R put the game to bed. Imperial finally scored a consolation goal 5 mins from the end.

The usual solid performances from Trevor, Eddie, Lappy, Cliff bode well for the rest of the season.
Matt Cannon

Saturday 14th January 2012

Vets 2-1 Old Salesians
On a crisp frosty morning we all decided to stay within the warm of the dressing room for our team talk.

Our midfield looking sparse with Charlie, Peter, Dazza all away.

With some shuffling Keith was asked to play centre half next to me to give the bank defence not only the richest partnership in our illustrious history but surely the best looking too!

Mike H and Ash were to play in the heart of the midfield with the usual suspects elsewhere.

Once we had ventured outside it was clear that the main pitch was unplayable and on inspection of the 2 others we trotted off to play on the Redgates turf.

Our spirits were lifted with the late arrival of Simon Toller fresh back from injury..Tom Daly has let him down gently and Simon will not be needed for the oncoming Olympics.

The Salesians vets turned up with several subs as well as a small troupe of support.

Off we went, Matt & Keith started well playing beautifully at the back as well as shifting the ball quickly.

Lappy sadly had to leave the field muttering something about the wizard physio he had seen being a charlatan!

Some great football was played by both sides with some tough, some fair some otherwise, tackling.

One of the quotes of the season came from Trevor as he called the oppo midfielder "A BIG HAIRY DRAMA QUEEN" to the amusement of all...especially the oppo player who agreed with Trevor's observation.

Finally a lovely through ball was controlled by Per who beat 3 Salesians players to slot in our first, 1-0 up at half time.

The second half was tough for the Bank as the blinding sunlight made distinguishing our own players from the Salesians difficult, both teams wearing quartered shirts with yellow!

Salesians kept coming forward winning most balls in the air and some fabulous tracking and tackling from Keith and another astonishing save from Eddie kept them at bay until an untidy challenge gave them a penalty.

A poor attempt saw the ball fly over the bar. 5 mins later Matt missed a header for their centre forward to run through to score the Salesians goal.

We had a stone wall penalty turned down but all was forgotten as Ryan spun on a sixpence and slotted the ball into the bottom right hand corner for 2-1.

Another great save from Eddie after persuasion by all that he really needed to come and collect the ball saw the Bank home and dry for our 2nd win of 2012.

Matt R, Mike H and Dazza will be absent skiing, Mike has promised all (his wife included) not to attempt the Cresta run again and come back in one piece this time.
Matt Cannon

Saturday 21st January 2012

Vets 3-0 Kew Park
Mike H El capitano, chief provider of goals and sometime left back was missing in the Alps with half of the midfield, Dazza & Matt R.

Happily Michiel Lap hobbled off the injury table to provide us with the team, structure and tactics to destroy the oppo. In true Bank spirit the "theme" of the week was continued with Lappy looking like he should be in the alps with Mike.

Lappy's team talk, would he be witty, brutal or calculating!....it did not start well as we had a new Eddie...was new Eddie in Goal, was old Eddie elsewhere?, once it had been pointed out that new Eddie was 5 foot 2 and Vet Eddie isn't used to leaving his six yard box the team was decided. Lappy seemed more concerned about missing the football on the box in the afternoon as his usual "I'm knackered" line could not be used...I believe Sky + and earplugs so he did not hear the scores surfficed! Team talk over (sorry but I dozed off and missed what was said) saw Vet Eddie in Goal, Trevor left back, Ash & Matt C centre halves and Cliff right back. The return of our midfield maestro Charlie in the centre with Simon's first full match following his injury next to the maestro was further strengthened with the return of Steve Waddon again from injury on the right and the erstwhile Billy on the left. Per and little Eddie started up front....the bench was filled by Keith, the club billionaire arriving by gold plated helicopter from Lyme Regis and our Russian Oligarch supervet Ilya ex Moscow Dynamo.

We started well with play disrupted by Kameel the angry man of Kew...who took great exception to being offside and after an interesting debate saw him booked for wearing a snood..banned from all football last year as anyone wearing one looks a bit of berk! We continued to play well and once we managed to get the ball off little Eddie (who played with himself mostly) Per showed his class coming close 3 times before adjusting his radar to score the clubs 2nd first half hat-trick. Simon and Steve playing their part along with man of the match Charlie in the middle all 3 feeding Per.

Keith and Ilya's introduction in the 2nd half saw the structure change somewhat but we could not find the back of the net again..With Kews angry man firing a penalty over the bar any hope of them scoring fizzled out with the game ending in the first Red card of the season TO?.....our quiz question for the week...all answers to be in by Midnight on Friday 27TH JANUARY.
Matt Cannon

Saturday 28th January 2012

Vets 3-3 Brentham
What a humdinger of a game!

Unbeaten Brentham rocked up to the Bank at 10 and were out warming up by 10.15...now I know we can be laid back and some would say that the bank team arriving on the pitch at 10.42 might have been a tactic to allow the Brentham warm-up to become a cool down on a crisp winters morning simply doesn't wash....we were lazy..very lazy.

A brief team talk from Lappy (even though Mike "Maestro" Harris had returned unscathed from the Alps) saw the first surprise with Lappy installing himself back at right back with Cliff unluckily returning to the bench. With the Billionaire off on another jaunt we saw the return of Ryan "scissors" Caine up front with Per and Mike H starting in the middle of the park next to Charlie.

Well I say starting but that took a while. Most of you know that I can be a bit "prickly" at times so got a tad upset when Eddie's goal kick was passed straight to their centre forward....so I decided to take the next which made Eddies kick look awesome..mine was that bad...it was like a bad cold which spread through the side (save for the boys up front who I do not believed actually got a touch for the first 10 mins) which saw poor passing, poor dribbling and pretty much poor everything else and it was not long that we went 2-0 down, could have been more!!

A dazzling run, give and get and a rocket shot saw Simon pull us back to 2-1. Someone sneezed and it became 3-1 to Brentham soon after...at 30 mins it looked like it was going to be a long morning for us! especially as Steve Waddon had to leave the field with a recurrence of an injury. Trevor I believe came up with the great idea that we should actually pass to Charlie....he quickly took control of the midfield and we had a couple of close chances. Another great run by Simon brought us a corner in the 44th minute. Lappy floated over a great ball for Matt C to head goalwards to be blocked before Matt managed to steer the ball home through a sea of legs....in at half-time 3-2 down.

Mike took over the mantle of chief reprimader whilst Matt and Eddie decided who's kicking was worst. We started the 2nd half at a fantastic pace playing some of the best football we have played all season to set siege on the Brentham goal....sadly we played like Arsenal and passed the ball fantastically well but forgot to pull the trigger. Trevor making run after run down the left before returning to win the ball.

Lappy was struggling at this point so the corner taking duties were taken over by Ryan...shame his first attempt wasn't filmed as we might well have reaped rich rewards for the club with what was unquestionably the worst corner kick ever taken...picture the ball going out of play BEFORE it leaves the corner D...Lappy was so disgusted he left the field to be replaced by a salivating Cliff who knew exactly what was needed for us to succeed. Another corner followed and up stepped Ryan again...this time Mike H and Ryan decided to play a short corner which was the 2nd worst corner this season! Finally a corner was swung over to be headed goalwards by Matt C which Per controlled and laid back to Simon who buried his finish into the back of the net 3-3.

Some great defending by the Bank with interceptions and some superb tackling by all saw the game swinging again our way. Mike A making a great run before naiing his shot into the Record Offices front door. A hard fought game finished 3-3 with our second draw of the season and Brenthams unbeaten run unscathed. An early warm up before our game with Old Richmond Lock next week is advised.
Matt Cannon