As the late, great Jimmy Greaves once observed “Football is a funny old game.”. One day you’re ‘over the moon’ and the next you’re ‘sick as a parrot’. Unfortunately for TAFC Lightning today’s match fell firmly into the ’poorly parakeet’ category. However, the beauty of competitive sport is that it is exactly that, competitive. You win some, you lose some and when you lose, you pick yourself up and you go again. As we all know, this is a spirit that Lightning exemplify and it is this spirit from which the team motto of ‘Onwards and Upwards!’ was born.

And so to the match. The winter sun was shining on Bushy Park as the two teams assembled to do battle. BB Soccer Lions were sitting top of the league and yet to lose any of their games this season, so we knew that this game was always going to be our Everest, but mountains are there to be climbed and Lightning set out from base camp with a steely determination to put a firm stop to the BB Lions’ victorious run.
Lightning lined up in their usual 4-4-2 formation with Samuel in goal, A back line of Jake (Captain) on the left and James on the right was completed by Chris and Daniel E in the middle. The midfield was comprised of Luke on the left wing and Joseph on the right with Louis and Daniel W in the centre. The twin attacking partnership was Sam and Stefanos. Game on!

The Lions applied some early pressure with a shot that went wide of the goal and a shot on target that was excellently saved by Samuel. Lightning had a couple of decent breaks but couldn’t make anything of them. The game continued in a lively upbeat tempo and another shot from the Lions flew wide of the goal. Unfortunately BB then took advantage of a defensive error from Lightning and scored the first of what sadly was going to be quite a few goals, but we won’t dwell on this. Samuel made another good block but the defence was looking leakier than a Welsh vegetable growing competition and the Lions broke through and scored again. Lightning didn’t even have a chance to regroup before a ridiculously speculative shot from outside the area from one of the Lions’ players rattled into the goal off the far post to make it three. Lightning’s ‘Swiss-cheese’ defence continued and the Lions exploited every hole they could find. Samuel was forced to make several more important saves to keep a chink of light glimmering at the end of Teddington’s proverbial tunnel, but eventually, despite an excellent fingertip deflection he found himself picking the ball up out of his own net once again.

Joseph was taken out in a nasty Lions’ pincer movement which took him off the pitch temporarily and George, Jack and Vansh entered the fray as Kevin shuffled his deck. With Jack’s pace up front, Lightning started to look a bit livelier and began to start putting some decent balls forward. Jack had a decent attempt at a free kick from distance, but it was just out of his range. Then a lovely ball over the top from Lightning found Jack in full flight down the middle of the pitch and he expertly chipped it over the Lion’s keeper and into the net! 1-4. Could they capitalise on this and stage another famous Lightning comeback? The feeling amongst the Lightning Faithful was positive.

Lightning were quickly forced to defend again and on the break Jack was flagged marginally offside, sparking a VAR discussion amongst the parents on the side line. Jake attempted to marshal the troops admirably but the Lion’s scored again and as the clock ticked down towards half time Samuel made another brilliant save to keep the dream of a heroic second half comeback alive. It certainly hadn’t been an easy first half for Teddington, but importantly, they had shown that they were more than capable of scoring goals, so hopes remained high during the half time break.

Half time –Teddington Lightning 1-5 BB Soccer Lions

As the second half got underway, BB Lions resumed where they had left off, putting Lightning straight back under the pump. The lightning defence was still more RAAC Concrete than rock solid and Samuel had to make another save early doors. However, ten minutes into the second half came what was definitely the highlight of the entire game from a Teddington point of view. The ball was passed right from the back all the way up the pitch, setting Jack free down the left hand side who executed a pin point cross into the box that Vansh was able to calmly slot into the net to score Lightning’s second goal. It was a team move of genuine excellence and it just showed what Lightning are capable of when they play as a unit. The tiniest inkling of an incredible comeback was still a faint hope at this stage…and so the Lightning warriors fought onwards.

But sadly the inkling began to fade away as the Lions roared back into the game, scoring several more goals in quick succession. Lightning found themselves pinned down in their own half and relentlessly forced to defend over and over again as the waves of Lions’ attacks came at them. But as always, in the face of this onslaught the Lightning Lads never gave up. One of the Lions’ players then inexplicably petulantly kicked the ball away after a free kick had been awarded to Lightning, earning himself a yellow card for his troubles. In fact, at this point , all over the pitch a certain amount of ‘handbags’ and some timewasting tactics were being deployed, which didn’t make any sense considering the score line being overwhelmingly in the favour of the Lions, but still Teddington played on (somewhat like the band on the Titanic at this point, but never mind!).

Just prior to the full time whistle the ball fell to George in the right back position and he pretty much summed up Lightning’s day by absolutely hoofing it off the pitch in disgust! It should have been the last kick of the game, but a corner was awarded and Lightning defended it successfully as the whistle thankfully blew for the end of the match.

It had certainly been a tough day at the office for Lightning, but these are the sort of games that we call ‘Learning games’. Sometimes you meet opposition who are stronger than you on the day, but this is how you learn to be better. You may be down, but you pick yourself up, dust yourself off and next week you go again, because when you’re down there’s only one way you can go….Onwards and Upwards!

Full Time – Teddington Lightning 2-8 BB Soccer Lions

Goals : Jack (30’), Vansh (45’)

Player of the Match : Jake – captained the side admirably in the face of the overwhelming odds stacked against them.