Racing Bats 8/12/08

INJURED PLAYERS, INJURED PRIDE AND INJURED SEASON

Racing Bats 1 Spartak Mojo 1

Racing Bats 2 Dad's Army 3

THE Bats dream of a successful first season came to a bitter end on Monday night as they came away with a hard-fought draw against arch rivals Spartak Mojo and lost to the pathetic collection of men who make up Dad’s Army.

And to add injury to insult joint top scorer Rob Felgate spent most of the night in Tooting A+E with damage to his medial cartilage meniscus and possibly cruciate ligament as well. The club’s physios are carrying out tests but the target man will almost certainly be out for the rest of the season and possibly much of the next campaign, and maybe even the rest of his career. An anonymous player commented: “Poor Rob but as long as we still have Damo he shouldn’t be missed that much.”

Felgate twisted his knee chasing the ball after Andy Hep – in his famous lazy fashion – had lost possession. He was carried from the pitch and sat on the sidelines wearing a pair of rather fetching girl’s tracksuit bottoms while he waited for a lift to hospital. The press caught up with Rob during his four hour wait in A + E but all he would say was: “I don’t blame Andy for my injury but I fully expect the rest of the team and the fans to.”

Left footed Andy Hep, when he wasn’t lazily defending, stepped up his game again to power home two cracking right-footed shots with Damo scoring the third of the night with a beautifully placed curled effort which gave the keeper no chance. With Rob's injury Damo will almost certainly go on to become Racing Bat's first ever top scorer... an accolade that is not to be taken lightly.

Duncan endured another nightmarish experience between the sticks taking his record to nine goals conceded in two matches. After the game he ranted: “Well that’s the last time I go in goal. I used to be good, no seriously I did. I blame Andy!”

With Dima ill with the flu and Rob crippled on the sidelines it gave the rest of the team the chance of a full-match run-out. Despite Samsonite looking like he was ready to die after a few minutes in the last few weeks, the ‘alleged’ gym work has obviously been paying off and he was able to keep up with the pace and put in a solid performance.

On top of all the other injury and illness problems facing the team our fearless leader The Cat, apparently feeling left out, decided to throw himself into the path of a stray elbow – causing him a nasty little cut under the eye and hopefully some bruising that will have people asking: “Is Becky beating you again James? Should we call social services?”

Al in all it was a pretty grim week for the Bats but with one match to go in the season they will surely strive to ‘get their shit together’ and look to a successful next campaign.

PLAYER------Apps---Goals---Assists---GK Apps---Clean sheet---Dis
D.Vorobtsova---15--------7-------4-----------0---------0---------------2
A.Hodgson-------1-------0-------1-----------0---------0---------------0
T.Hodgson-------0-------0-------0-----------0---------0--------------0
S.McCartney-----13------3-------3-----------4---------0--------------0
R.Felgate--------16------11-------5-----------0---------0--------------0
J.Hepburn-------13-------3-------5-----------4--------1---------------0
A.Hepburn-------12-------5-------5----------5---------1--------------0
D.Hepburn-------13-------2-------2----------4---------0---------------0
D. Stalley---------11-------12------4----------0---------0--------------0