045 Match Report | 19th April

Having witnessed the spectacular birth of Dunbar Rovers State League at Hennessy (sorry Hensley) Athletics Field on Saturday, the O45s went Back to the Future for the birthplace of the Club in 1991. Before the days of Reg Bartley and NCIE there was Queens Park and …. er, Queens Park.

Reminiscent of the early days, we did away with substitutes, however this time not by choice. We welcomed new signing Pat Molloy as Keith Smith’s northern interpreter. An ominous sign for Miliband, as Pat showed the north has an effective right wing when he skillfully opened up Queens Park’s defence on several occasions.

After solid pressure, Doug Hughes found the plutonium to unleash the DeLorean and put us 1-0 up. His fourth goal of the year, maybe looking to be the Club’s first ever defender to collect a season’s Golden Boot of the Year Award. The pressure continued with Adrian being denied by a couple of great saves from QP. Fortunately one rebounded for Chris Buksh to set up CJ for a clinical finish. 2-0.

All looking good, damn good. Biff would have got out his Back to the Future Grays Sports Almanac and rigged the betting for Dunbar to repeat the six goal processions set by our State League teams.

But no, a fallen branch disconnected the DeLorean’s breaks as some lighting struck. We skidded and let a sharper Queens Park back in. 2-1, game on.

Half Time. Keith Smith took the conch and demonstrated that a quick word can last over five minutes with his “Doc” Brown theory of structural evolution. We all listened intently, some even drawing lines in the grass to help those struggling with the science.

Ten minutes into the second half, the car accident. In a close encounter a nameless Novacastrian had a minor timing issue with his challenge. I am sure it was a slight loss of balance, but the referee had a less generous opinion and purposefully entered the fray brandishing a red card.

Nick Cross, our fearless leader, took the simplistic view that we all had to step up 10%. This was true, despite a mathematical genius advising us that 9.1% would suffice. What did work magnificently was the half time words of wisdom about structural evolution. We maintained our shape to hold the clock at 2-1 so the Delorean could disappear back to 2015 with ten men safely on board.

Dave Mills was rightly awarded the Man of the Match demonstrating the medically proven cure for man flu is a game of football for Dunbar Rovers.