An eventful day ensued for Tor's final home game of the 2005/2006 campaign against their local Glastonbury rivals Countryman. Both teams were missing key players, Tor without a grand total of seven first team players, including the injured Nathan Truckle who started on the bench and Nigel Cove on the sidelines with his freshly broken foot picked up in last weeks epic with Maltshovel. It must be mentioned that Cove had played 50 minutes of the Maltshovel game with the broken foot, he showed the kind of grit and spirit that has carried Tor to their best season so far in recent memory. We only hope that his steely mindset is not weakened by the upcoming six week layoff at home by the numerous hours of daytime television and boredom. As a precaution for his sabbatical we have already confiscated his collecton of adult movies, however only minutes after them being liberated, allegedly, David Sarjant (newly single) was seen shying away from the scene wearing a large overcoat then claiming for the next week that he had flu and couldn't come out, I'm sure it was just a coincidence.
The visitors started out of the blocks the quickest, taking the lead within a few minutes of the whistle after good work down the right from Culliford, who proved to be the danger man and consistent threat to the hosts for the full 90 minutes. Tor managed to keep themselves in the game and after a couple of efforts on goal, firstly from Randall, then a sweetly hit 30 yarder from Forster, neither however hit the target. It took a good run from Pentney and a confident finish from Johnson to level the scores. Almost immediately Countryman grabbed the lead back after a cool finish from good build up play. As half time approached the visitors looked comfortable and worthy of their advantage, however self confessed thong fan, Johnson, struck again to keep the scoreline level at the break.
At this point the game still resembled a football scoreline, however the second 45 was to change this and prove probably the most entertaining seen all season. If only the television cameras had been present, Andy Gray and Alan Hansen would have had a field day and the ever critical Hansen would have exhausted the phrase "the defending was shocking". For fifteen minutes the game looked like following the same formula as the first half, with Countryman taking the lead only for Tor to equalise matters at 3-3. At this point my ability to recollect the remaining half an hour diminishes, from what I can remember, and hopefully it will come back to me once the shock has subsided, Tor raced into a 6-3 lead only to be given a wake up call as the visitors scored two quickfire goals to leave the last ten minutes anyone's game at 6-5. Johnson completed his hat-trick with a cross meant for Randall which caught a gust of arctic wind and found the top corner, goalkeeper Wilcox pulled off some fine saves and captain Paul Pentney then finished off the visitors resistance to give Tor an 8-5 victory. The remaining unmentioned scorers were Mark Randall, Nathan Truckle and David Sarjant.
It certainly has been a roller coaster ride being part of a Tor home game this season, this latest effort being probably the most exciting, if not at times for the managers, quite nauseous. Nevertheless the game was played with the commitment and passion from both sides that you would expect from a local derby. Credit must go to both sets of players for the fair play and good competative spirit the game was played in, a good all round advert for the game.
David Sarjant, once again, has the flu, this time however it is rumoured that he in fact has injuries sustained from what was described as a set of crutches being wielded by a man with an enormous white sock on his left foot and a frustrated look about him. Get well soon Nigel.
(Story First Published: 07.03.06) |
