LUCK OF THE IRISH

We arrived at the Emerald Centre wishing for the luck of the Irish to stay away from St Patrick’s Athletic. First problem, the gate code, we tried more codes than a safe cracker during a heist. 30 minutes later we were in, the opposition were seen with a crowbar, it felt right given the drive in through the deepest darkest parts of Leicester.

Griff got the lads sweating in the warm up to Enter Sandman, comments were heard of “when will it end” and “I feel like Mr Soft” came from the death rondo. Eddy looking like a Mafia boss with his hair slicked back pulled the lads in for a few words with “Capo” Scott ready to lead out the mobsters. Chad was hunting to find a four leaf clover for luck but clearly we were out of it as fresh from the infamous dentist chair walked over a Paul Gascoigne doppelgänger with more personalities than the England great to referee the game, it wasn’t the first time our paths had crossed following an incident with Steve Smith last season.

Bosworth started the brightest and it looked like there would only be one winner in this game from the early exchanges. Nathan was causing problems down our right, he tested the keeper with a low strike and then blazed one over the bar as did Scott shortly after. Nath turned provider as he found Stephens whose heel flick landed in the keepers arms.

Bosworth took the lead when Dicko found Nath who played in Scotty and he marauded forward, bursting through 90s wrestling duo Earthquake and Typhoon at centre back for St Pats, you don’t want to get into a grapple with the Natural Disasters. A tidy finish from Scott and a goal so good you could hear “Great Scott” coming from a back to the future movie set!

St Pats got themselves into the game and started to get a bit of joy with the ball, a bit of a sucker punch and two quick goals frustrated the Bosworth back line. To add to our woes Capo Scott needed to come off with an injury and was replaced by Dave Bell who was sent on to do a job on the St Pats number 2 as he was making them tick and he did it well.

Bosworth tried to equalise, most of our threat coming through Nathan still, he made a similar run to Scott but took an air shot at crucial stage. Stephens held off the Natural Disasters in the box to turn and shoot but there wasn’t enough contact or power to really trouble the keeper.

Bosworth equalised, a good through ball was cut out well but Nathan collected and ran through and finished powerfully into the bottom corner. Just moments later he turned provider when his ball across the box saw Daniel slide in like Gazza in 96 but agonisingly couldn’t make meaningful contact on the ball and shortly after Stephens headed over after a good cross from the right.

The referee blew his whistle for half time, as he had done for most of the first half in a very loud and aggressive way, the whistles were so loud Border Collies in Wales had started to round up sheep in the valleys!

Dale or Picasso as he is known locally due to always having paint on him came on for Stephens at half time to try and work the back line with his direct running however St Pats didn’t really allow it for much of the second half.

Despite the narrow pitch we were getting a bit of joy on the outside and Daniel won a penalty when a good ball over the full back saw him turn inside and the defender handballed on the floor. Hutch picked up the ball and placed it down on the spot, however he handed responsibility to Nathan and with the keeper guessing the right way to make the save, the keeper clawed away the rebound and Hutch then hit the post, as chaos in the box ensued, the score remained at 2-2.

Griff after soaking himself with a bottle of Buxton Spring came on for Carl who had to leave the field with a knock and Nobby Neil replaced Daniel to give us a bit of new energy on the field.

St Pats took the lead when a thunderous drive smashed off the underside of the bar leaving Jimbo helpless as they then nodded in the rebound, a great strike and another goal from nothing.

Bosworth must have been feeling like this wasn’t going to be their day, dominated the ball, had loads of chances and it just wasn’t going our way. However in the final ten minutes like the pre-match song itself, ‘Enter Sammon’ was our last throw of the dice. Bosworth really pushed hard for an equaliser, balls into the box, long throws and one finally came into fruition when Dale launched a ball which Stephens hit on the half volley into the goal. A well deserved equaliser.

The game ended 3-3 and it was a strange way to feel, like one point gained but two points lost on the balance of the match. The pitch played into the advantage of the opposition as Bosworth could not use the ball as well as they normally do. The referee was once again the centrepiece, counting down the goalkeeper from 8 seconds very quickly, he was advised to add a Mississippi in-between each number moving forward, I’m sure it was taken on board.

On a bright note, still undefeated this season and the lads are showing good character for fighting back in games. Griff said after the game

I think we should have come away with 3 points today but in fairness St Pats did not give up. Main thing, we got a point and let's see what that does for us later down the line. MOTM for me was Nathan, great effort boys.

Some of the lads celebrated with Carl after who recently turned 40. A special guest for the post-match curry was Crocodile Jack Dundee.

Snakeskin Jack Dundee

Final note, 8.28km on Hutch’s heat-map this week.