JC MSFL DIVISION FOUR
North London Raiders C 1 SPEC FC 2

In the MSFL fourth division equivalent of the Derby della Madonnina, it was SPEC who blew Raiders away amid the blustery conditions of their shared Hatfield home ground.

SPEC were boosted immeasurably by the return of goalkeeper Michael Rhodes between the sticks. Playing his first game since the opening day of the season after successfully recovering from knee surgery, the Bananas no. 1 will have busier first halves this season as the initial 45 minutes was played out mostly in the centre of the park.

Silky skilled Scotsman, Marc Hecht, was doing all he could to galvanise the SPEC midfield, whilst Katz and Russell were tireless in their pressing for Raiders as both sides went after the all-important first goal.

And it was the returning Rhodes, who has never lost in the SPEC shirt, who made a telling contribution midway through the first half, thwarting the best efforts of the Raiders striker Ben Hart, who tried to round him after receiving a defence splitting pass. The Banana’s keeper did well to smother the ball before the SPEC defence completed the clearance.

Moments later, just as the half looked set to finish all square, Hecht lofted a fine ball forward for Dan Cohen who ran like the wind before rounding the Raiders goalkeeper and keeping his cool to fire SPEC into the break 1-0 up.

The second half continued with both sides stroking the ball around the park with consummate ease. The Bananas, who had skipper Burns playing in surprise attacking midfield role and doing all the right things, thought they had the match under control when Raiders forced an equaliser out of nothing.

A windswept goal kick was pounced on by Hart and despite Rosenthal doing brilliantly to head a shot off the line, the Raiders striker poked the rebound in from barely a yard out.

This however only seemed to act as a catalyst for SPEC as before Raiders even had a chance to say “that wind assisted goal was possibly as good as GUST Poyets and GALE Clichy’s best ever goals combined”…. SPEC were back ahead!

Ricky Lawrence embarked on one of his trademark driving runs before playing in super-sub Dan Pike who smashed home low and hard inside the near post to send the travelling fans into raptures.

With 15 minutes left, Raiders threw caution to the wind and went Gung-ho in search of an equaliser. However, with Wilson, Wallis, Rosenthal and ‘The Berlin Wall’ sitting steady in front of Rhodes for SPEC, there was no way past. When they did manage to ask questions of the opposition back four, it appeared that the answers were blowing in wind as the Bananas defence held strong and proved why they boast the meanest defensive record in the league.

When the final whistle blew, SPEC were jubilant having seen Pike and Cohen’s fine finishes sink a battling Raiders side who were ultimately left feeling Dan and Out.

SPEC Manager Laurence Conway released a statement shortly after the match and was eager for his Bananas not to get too carried away despite a fine win: “We worked hard in what was a hard fought contest.

"It’s the business end of the season now and this is where the men are separated from the boys.”