Brindabella Blues lined up against us this morning with a handful of Division 1 players, however the Old Boys got off to a dream start in this Anzac Day clash and went 1-0 up within the opening 10 minutes. Brindabella came back though and scored, from our point of view, two very soft goals in quick succession and began to dominate the midfield, with their slick passing movement. It didn’t come as any great surprise when they increased the margin to 3-1 just before half-time.
Going into the second half, it looked as if the Old Boys would be blown away, but determined defending from the gallant back four and some unbelievable goalkeeping kept the score at 3-1 for most of the half. Our keeper John Herd made one save that brought back memories of Gordon Banks’s save from Pelé’s header in the 1970 Mexico World Cup, well the slow motion replay version at least, but a great save nonetheless. Well done Johnny for a great man-of the-match performance.
An inspired motivational pep talk from midfield general Branko Milenovic, who calmly suggested we all raise our game by 5%, seemed to spur us on as the game approached the final 10 minutes. With all the swagger and panaché of vintage Bobby Charlton , Alan Froud stepped forward and drove a blinder from 25 yards into the bottom corner to reduce the deficit to 3-2, for what seemed at the time as mere consolation. Then with the last kick of the game, never say die Celtic fan Colin Tulley went down the left byline and chipped over a beautiful cross that eluded everyone and sailed into the far corner. Incredible, we’d snatched a draw out of certain defeat, in much the same way as we did against Brindabella last season, when we came back from 3-1 down to draw 3-3.
All in all not a great performance, but a good effort, a determined fight back by the Old Boys, and a hard earned point. Onwards and upwards with a game against Canberra FC next Sunday at Yarralumla.
