[Chief Rum]

July 15, 2002

"Tenford! Did you read the Telegraph?"

Peter turned in his seat and saw his best friend Andrew Trellis walking over toward his seat, a paper clutched in his hand. He handed him the paper as he settled into his seat beside Peter.

"No, I ran late at the park and had to come here straightaway to catch the match," Peter said. He unfolded the crumpled paper as Andy scanned the pitch for the first time. "What's so big in the paper?"

"I think that must be him," Andy said, pointing at a shorter man standing near Manager Kieta, who was squinting intently at a clipboard. "That must be the new assistant manager!"

"Hmm...?"

"Read the paper, Peter! On page 2. It says the Poppies have hired some Irishman named Tony Brien to be their assistant manager," Andy said, as he reached over and turned the page for me. Peter read the small piece quickly, a newswire bit that obviously just made the press cutoff. "You ever heard of him?"

"No, I haven't," Peter grumped. He didn't like a lot of the moves this new manager had made yet. "What's with all the Irish? Our whole midfield, practically, is from that island, and now here's another, and an unknown to boot, getting an important position like this."

"You got the time?", Andy asked.

"It's just after seven. Match is gonna start soon. You know where William and Randall are?", Peter asked, looking at the two other empty seats on Andy's other side. The four had been season ticket holders for the Poppies for years now.

"I don't think they are making it. Willy had to work late, and you know how Randall's woman is," Andy said, making a face. "She's a shrew if ever I saw one, and you know it would be just like her to hang him up for a night out on the first night of footy in two months. If he was gonna make it, he would have been here by now."

"Oh well," Peter said, surveying the sparsely-crowded stands. "It doesn't seem like much of a crowd is turning out for this one anyway."

"Well, you know how the friendlies are. Everyone hates to come out for the meaningless ones," Andy said.

"True enough. The match is going to start in a few--what say you go grab us a couple pints of Bass, so we can christen this event rightly..."

Halftime

"Good God, have I ever been more bored in my life, Tenford?" asked Andy, incredulously. "It's not that it's scoreless, but we hardly even saw any chances! I'm not even sure the Poppies came into the Cherries' half of the pitch."

"Yes, I know what you mean," Peter said. "It was rather dull, but then, what do you expect from a friendly? It's obvious both sides are pulling their tackles and playing it easy."

"True," Andy admitted. "What did you think of the team?"

"Well, they seem to play well on the defensive end, though we'll have to see how that plays out when they face some real pressure," Peter said. "The offense doesn't really seem to be getting anything going, although Murray has looked good."

"Yeah, he has, but that dark fellow Itonga hasn't even taken one good look at the net yet," Andy groused. "Wasn't he supposed to be the new striker on this side? Eye for the net, my arse."

"Give him a little time, Andy," Peter said. "The Poppies don't even seem to be trying on offense just yet. Maybe Mr. Kieta is just using this match to guage the defense."

"We better hope so," Andy said. "Look, they're coming back out."

64th Minute

"Well, half the starting side is on the bench now. It looks like this one is going to wind up like most friendlies, with a lot of reserves getting what little playing time they will," Andy said. He watched as two more of the Poppies' starters walk off the field.

Whistles go off as play begins again. The Cherries throw the ball in from the bench side on their half of the pitch, and Poppies' midfielder Stefan Dancy approaches a Cherry as he prepares to accept the throw-in. The ball shakes loose a bit in the tumult, and the Cherry shoulders into Dancy to get to the ball. Dancy catches a little shoulder in the face and reacts angrily, shoving the player to the ground. Whistles go off again, as play steps.

"Oh no," Peter groans. "I can see this one coming from a mile away..."

Referee Bob Pollack steps up to Dancy and holds the red card up high. The expression on Dancy's face goes wild as the 18-year-old steps up to the referee to maybe give him a push, too. Shaun Murray intervenes before the young midfielder can reach him. Dancy's cursing can be heard from the stands.

"Quite a mouth on that one," Andy observed. "Now I see why he didn't get much playing time the past couple years."

"Well, he's just a kid, Andy," Peter pointed out. "That's to be expected. Still, to get tossed from a friendly--Good Lord! I mean, look at Kieta. You can just tell he's pissed off right now, and I don't think he's pissed at the ref, if you know what I mean."

"Aye, you're right," Andy said. "Look, he's motioning for Murray to escort Dancy to the bench. I guess we'll have to play this one out short one then. As if we need an excuse to get even more defensive."

"Dancy's gonna miss Thursday's match for this one, maybe more," Peter said. Andy just nodded in agreement as play resumed.

A couple minutes passed in silence, as the Poppies surprisingly pushed deep into Cherry territory. After a scrum near the box, the ball squirted out to the left side of the box. Bournemouth's keeper scrambled to reach the ball, as Murray raced to beat him to it.

"Look at that!" Andy said, rising to his feet. "That Cherry keeper is to far out!"

Peter rose, too, hoping for a score, something, anything to add some excitement to this match.

"Looks like Murray's going to beat him to it, but the keeper has him cloed down."

Murray collects the ball, switches feet and knocks a short flier to the other side of the box. The few fans in the stands get a little louder as Murray's intent becomes clear. Bournemouth's keeper turns and stares for a second in seeming disbelief before scrambling back toward the net.

The ball drifts down on striker Mike McKenzie's foot near the right corner of the box. Defenders are closing in on him, and a fullback has drifted back to the net line, but the keeper is still out of range and McKenzie has an open shot. He rares back and blasts it at the far left corner. The defender, frozen by the shot, can only watch helplessly as the ball sails into the net with a satisfying whump. The stands erupt into cheers and hurrahs as the Poppies mob McKenzie briefly in front of the net.

Andy and Peter are hooting and hollering as well, big smiles on their faces.

90th minute

"No starters left in this one but Bowling," Andy said.

"Yes, and with Mckenzie's goal standing up, it looks like we might take this one," Peter said. But did he speak too soon? The Cherries were keeping the ball well away from the Poppy defenders, playing a short passing game just over the halfline.

Finally, one attacker seemed to find a hole. He was quickly closed down, but not before he curled a tailing shot toward the upper right bar.

"Oh no," Andy groaned. Peter felt it, too. This one was going in. They both rose to their feet in helpless anticipation.

Even from here, they could see Ian Bowling's eyes go wide. His reaction was instantaneous, as he gathered himself for what would have to be an amazing leap. He threw himself toward the ball, hands outstretched, even as the ball moved away from him. It was nearly across the line, when his fingers brushed it off and sent it flying into the bar. It ricochetted back out beyond the box, where another Cherry gathered it up, but was quickly closed down and forced to give it away.

"Unbelievable," Andy croaked. "I can't believe he got his hands on that one! Call me a git for doubting the man. How often has Bowling come through for this squad in the past years?"

Peter merely nodded his agreement, himself struck dumb by the amazing save.

Two minutes later, the refs blew the whistle and this friendly was in the books.

"Well, I'll be!" Peter said. "We beat a solid team here, albeit in a friendly and just a D3 side."

"Yeah, I was surprised, too," Andy said. "We didn't get much offense going, but we did when we had to. We even won shorthanded. And they couldn't crack our defense either."

The two men gather their things and prepare to leave, even as the team gathers by the bench, patting each other on the back. The small crowds are sporadically streaming toward the exits.

"Will you be here Thursday?" Andy asked.

"Likely, though, Peterborough isn't going to be easy," Peter said.

The two men drifted toward the exit.