The Dock advanced into the 4th round with a 5.1 victory over Parkside and will now meet Big House of the Wallasey Sunday League on December 5th. Our Six fingered contingent will be able to brief us with an up to date dossier on Big House but I am wondering how Reay, Hammond and Griffo will be able to grip the pen to write such a dossier when they have extra digits to content with. ( Is Josh Dures from Wallasey also ?)
Anyway, back to the game and there were disgraceful scenes at Levers as Gary Reay split his shorts as he put them on and had to be named as a substitute while a replacement pair was found. Three pairs of last year’s shorts had to be sewn together to accommodate Reayman .
Lee Hammond also dropped to the bench as his head was not right after an approach by ‘The Mighty Arm’. Tony Sample reported feeling sick after eating ten paving slabs and heavy duty copper cable in a Birkenhead restaurant on Saturday night, so he too went on the bench . Tommy Hunt and Young Tit made up the rest of the subs.
Ian Brunt led out the team and this automatically won him the man of the match award as the team bristled with confidence from being led by this warrior and the game was as good as won as Brunty put on the captains armband in the dressing room. A couple of players were visibly weeping with pride and joy and it cannot be long until he retains the captaincy full time.
Dock started with some free flowing football and neat play. Some one touch stuff, involving Charlie McInnes and U.S.A. international Sean Holmes, ended in Jamie Kenyon forcing a save from the keeper. Although Dock enjoyed most of the possession, it wasn’t until the 20th minute that they created another chance and that came by way of a free kick, won by McInnes, took by Sean Holmes, that clipped the top of the bar.
In the 25th minute Bernaaaaaaaaaard Holmes suggested that we should ‘’Put these to the Sword !’’ but a minute later, Parkside could of scored, as a ball over the top forced our camp looking goalie into a save and the close attention of Nemaja Vidic also helped the forward into rushing his effort.
It was on the half hour mark when Dock opened the scoring. It was Charlie McInnes who swung over a deep cross to the far post where Josh Dures finished with aplomb when making it look easy as he put a controlled right foot volley into the back of the net. Three minutes later and it was 2.0. Sean Holmes lashed in a free kick on the edge of the area after Mick Saunders had been fouled.
Parkside forced a goal back on 36 minutes when a clever back heel on the edge of the area sent the Dock defence for the Echo. The Parkside forward had an easy task of shooting past the keeper who was too busy speaking to two leather shorted puffs and exchanging phone numbers to notice that they had scored! He did redeem himself a minute later by saving an effort from outside the box and this served as a warning that Parkside were not going to lie down.
Just before the half time whistle, Captain Brunt caught veteran Speedy with a tackle that he wasn’t best pleased with and let him know by calling Brunty a ‘’Fu*#in’ Kn**h##d !” to which the whole ground applauded.
Five minutes after the interval Dock found their stride when a good run down the right by Charlie resulted in his cross finding Jamie Kenyon who made no mistake at the far post to make it 3.1. Two minutes later and it was 4.1 when a Sean Holmes cross was headed home by that man again, Jamie Kenyon. Gary Reay can see his Golden Hi Heel slipping away and will surely end his days at ‘The Arm’ sooner rather than later.
On the hour mark, Brunty’s Helicopter began to circle overhead ready to whisk him away to captain Liverpool against Chelsea later in the afternoon. Four Puff’s and a Piano were shouting out the Helicopter door for Brunty to get a move on as the Chopper got perilously low over the pitch (pictured below). This did not deter a good move involving the two Holmes’ and Dures with Dures shooting wide.
Four Puffs got their way when Brunty was replaced , along with Liam Simon, by Tommy Hunt and Craigo Donaghy. 63 minutes had elapsed when Dures headed downwards and into the arms of the keeper and Mc Innes fired over the bar five minutes later.
Miguel Saunders was hauled off on 75 minutes with suspicion still surrounding this player as he stalls on talks until after the Cheshire Cup tie in a couple of weeks. His replacement, Lee Hammond, gave him a ‘ high six’ as they crossed past each other.
Late on in the game the Dock keeper went down like ‘Duke Street’ as the ball flashed past the post and then came for a punch and missed, punching fresh air !
In the last minute Charlie capped a fine performance netting from an acute angle after good play down the left.
Man of the Match:- Captain Brunt, (Another impressive display by Josh Dures and Charlie McInnes impressed also )
Report: Mike Stephens
Photos: Chris Stading
