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After losing the first game of the season, in the dying seconds, the Geese felt they needed to take something from this encounter today against St. Margaretsbury, to compensate for our poor start and lack of points.

Four players were absent from last weeks team, this being, Craig Norris, Phil Baker, Richard Bates and Goalkeeper Rob Cully. However, the Geese welcomed back “Seagull Sensation” Dave Armstrong & “Boobies Browser” Chris Wicks from holiday and Paul Cavill “The Camel” back from his summer work in desert land of Algeria.

The Geese would have preferred to play the game in the desert land of Algeria, than on the woeful looking replacement pitch provided by St. Margaretsbury. This bumpy training pitch had clearly not been given any love by anyone. Even father Dave Enefer moaned that the suspension on his push-bike couldn’t handle the Margaretsbury terrain, opting for a short ride from his Hoddesdon based home, turning up on the sidelines just before kick off.

As Paul Cully pondered with several tactical options, things looked bad for the Geese. Perry withdrew himself from the starting line-up, to the dismay of Pete, with back troubles. For two centre midfielders in their early twenties, Pete and Perry have the combined back age of 109. If we were going to win the game today, we would have to do it without the tenacity of hardworking Mr. Perry. To make things worse, as his team-mates were warming up, Simon Hoy was still dreaming of fluffy Tony Yeboah merchandise, until he realised that he ought to be playing football. This delay casted Hoy as a substitute and picking up a team fine.

After Neal won the second toss of the season, the Geese started the game quite confidently, with the majority of the possession and getting the ball down well considering the quality of the pitch. However, no real chances were made, and the bulk of the chances were scraps from corners and long throws. St. Margaretsbury had some chances of their own, but these were dealt with, with some superhero tackles from Paul Cavill.

This stance of the game continued throughout the first half, until a poor clearance was met by a St. Margaretsbury player, whose cross was headed home by the striker, past the helpless Rob Dodd in goal. The Geese had to raise their game, to get back in it. A frustrated Peter Enefer wasn’t happy and after the ref made a pass back to the opposition be re-taken, and undisclosed comment saw him pick up a yellow card. Captain Neal Dodd attempted to motivate his team-mates, putting his personal troubles with missing hamsters to one side. Not long after, Wicks received the ball in the centre of midfield and placed it down the line for Cully to run on to. After the pass took a deflection, everybody thought Cully should have let the ball go out for a corner, but he proved them all wrong, cutting it back for Paul to smash low into the net. The Geese went in one-one at the break.

Turning up twenty minutes into the game, Hoy was now ready for entry into the game. Manager Paul Cully replaced Paul Cavill, who was suffering with the sniffles, with Hoy, putting Hoy into left midfield and dropping Armstrong back into defence, his spiritual position.

In a contrast to the first half, the Geese lacked any impetus to play. There were very few chances made and it wasn’t long before an unmarked St.Margaretsbury player pounded the ball past the near side of Rob Dodd, putting them 2-1 ahead. The Geese could have converted one or two chances, but there was nothing clear cut. There was a clear shortage of cohesion and effort that the Geese have become renowned for in their short history.

The game was put to bed, when the opposition’s ginger striker was fed through, and struck low into the right of the goal, with Armstrong and Cedrone failing to get a last ditch tackle in. In the last five minutes a St. Margaretsbury corner saw Matt Cully accidentally header the ball against the crossbar, leaving the ball to drop for another unmarked player at the back post, putting them 4-1 up and sending the gaggle home, unhappy with their performances.

This week, unlike last, the Geese deserved to lose. But surely it cannot be long before Turnford Geese pull together and put these defeats past them, and start playing the good football that they are capable of. I personally would like to apologise to Rory and the fans that came, about our performance today. I hope that I speak for everyone in that they we will try to play with more goose passion in the future, and in particular against Hammer Reserves in the Intermediate County Cup next Sunday at Grundy Park.

The day had finally arrived - after a long summer without football, the Gaggle were ready to begin a whole new venture in Division 1 just 4 seasons after starting out in Division 6! The Geese lost their record goal-scorer Paul Dodd over the summer after he hurt his ankle abseiling down a curb near his home – he has since been sent to the U.S where Dr. Richard Steadman has the unenviable task of saving his career. This ‘sprain’ to his right ankle will see Paul Dodd, better known as ‘Paul’ spend at least 18 months overseas – we wish him luck! Other absentees for this fixture included Wicks, Wright, Cavill, Armstrong, G.Vullo, Wearing & Simpson. However, the great news was that midfield maestro Simon Hoy was fit to play in his first competitive match since tearing knee ligaments in a horrific accident back in November 2007.

The ref got the game underway and Turnford Geese seemed to take control of the game early on, minimising any potential threat from Cheshunt and generally looked very comfortable for the opening 20 minutes, this was further highlighted by Vullo’s Samba-like turn on their right winger. Even though the back 4 looked solid in the first half, the midfield seemed to lack creativity and pace with the forward pairing of Hoy and Ellerbeck lacking understanding of each others game, due to the fact this was their first game upfront together. This lead to a situation whereby both teams were cancelling each other out and it was becoming a game in which you thought either side could win. After 30 minutes a Gaggle of Geese were seen flying over the pitch and right on call Turnford Geese forced a corner on the right. The ball was sent over by Matt Cully which found its way out to Neal Dodd on the edge of the box who took a touch out of his feet only to be fouled by a Cheshunt Defender. Peter Enefer stepped up to take the free-kick and curled it in off the bar and just over the line – awesome free-kick and just what the Geese needed. 0-1Enefer. The fans now awaited another goal to pile pressure on the Home side though this never came. It should have though, 10 minutes later when Matt Cully was fouled on the edge of the box, the referee awarded a ‘100% penalty’. Although after conferring with the club linesman, a free-kick was given...

Just before the break the Turnford Geese defence was caught flat appealing for offside which allowed the forward in to slot past a helpless Rob Cully who had no chance. 1-1. Soon after the restart the ref blew for half-time and a frustrated Turnford Geese left the field, knowing that they could do better and be in front.

Paul Cully sat his troops down and stated exactly what he wanted from them, though it was clear to see from both sides that tiredness was a limiting factor in this game due to a 4 month break but everyone still had confidence and belief that the Geese would come strong and win this game. Simon complained of his own performance stating that he was ‘having a bad game’ but for a guy who had been out for 10 months his performance was one to take confidence from.

It wasn’t long into the second half that Manager Paul Cully made his one and only change with his only outfield option Richard Bates coming on upfront for a disappointed Phil Baker and Simon Hoy switching to the left side of midfield. Phil had played well, though the substitution was needed to add a bit more bite to the attack which the addition of Batesy never fails to provide!! Only a few moments after his introduction to the game Batesy tried a cheeky flick over his head, though the ball hit him straight in the face! The game was continuing to look very even with neither side creating much, however this all changed when Peter Enefer provided a bit of magic inside their 18-yard box – he beat 1, he beat 2, he beat 3, he beat 4 surely….surely…..but no he ‘tapped’ the ball into the keepers arms and failed to score what surely would have been a contender for Goal of the Season.

As the game went on tiredness began to creep in to either side and Turnford Geese completely lost their shape throughout the team and eventually this led to Cheshunt taking the lead. 2-1. Moments later a corner from the right side came out to Neal Dodd on the edge of the 6-yard box who struck home to square the game at 2-2! Unbelievable, they looked out of this one but once again showed the resolve seen throughout the previous season to come back. However, this was not to be Turnfords’ day and a foul on the edge of the box resulted in their forward Daryl creaming the ball into the top corner with a goal that any player would be proud of. 3-2. This was virtually the last kick of the game and spelled major disappointment for the Geese who deserved more from this game. The lads performed well overall and it was a shock that they didn’t even come away with a draw.

Turnford Geese’s next fixture see’s them travel to St.Margretsbury in a fixture they must win to kick start their season. Sometimes after a defeat you can pin-point certain players and blame them for the loss, however the lads couldn’t really have done much more today what with it being their first game and still missing players in several positions. Well done lads, I’m sure we will do well this season and really didn’t deserve to lose this one – keep your chins up.