Shall we Sing a Song for you?

The paper was telling people to stop the slagging. Although I think that actually means ‘slaughter’…

Glad I wasn’t in that car!

Merry Christmas Simon!

Busted

In other SA related news, Stephen Murray lists driving up the Sani Pass as his 6th best experience of 2008!

At 8:30pm. Cost is £3 (or £5 after 10:30)

“A party with a difference – let’s bring in the new year in style!!”

Age: 16+

- Steelo scores winner* in 4-2 victory over Law Society
- Phil so excited he proposes
- Walker returns in blaze of glory

Renwick got back to winning ways at the Ozone this afternoon after a late fight-back made up for an at times unconvincing performance from the joint league leaders. Renwick, with Phil and Steve both out of the country, took to the pitch with Mark in charge and Walker standing at the sidelines wearing his number 6 shirt ready for a half-time comeback. The hype surrounding Walker’s return led to the attendance of Renwick fans swelling to 3, one of them all the way from South Africa. Kate is surely in the running for fan of the year, and a video acceptance speech at the awards night would be some craic! Despite the absentees, Renwick had a squad of 14 to pick from, with Strob being brought in for the vital clash with the Lawyers to replace Steve and partner Dave Smith at centre back, with Sean returning after the history and politics mystery tour (which ended up in Dublin) and moving back to central midfield. Cromie took the whistle and Steelo and Walker spent the first half reminiscing about the good old days.

The Law Society, although not nearly as good as we’d feared based on past games with them, had the best of the early play, with a few balls in behind the defence requiring Jonny to be off his line like a spring chicken, but even when he didn’t manage it, they didn’t manage to make it count. Mark had a chance for Renwick but put it over the bar, then after about 20 minutes we took the lead. Amazingly, all 5 spectators missed it, but apparently most of the Law Society had stopped playing as the ball was out, but Benwise played on and passed it to Conor who scored from long range. That was about the end of our chances for the half, and with the defence not looking completely assured and the ball not sticking up front, it wasn’t completely unexpected that Renwick couldn’t hold their lead till half-time. Jonny was called on to make a few saves, including one to prevent a spectacular own-goal from Strob, but eventually in the closing minutes of the half, the ball was played through to a striker who looked well offside, and then handled the ball after his first shot was blocked, Renwick had a chance to clear it but didn’t manage and eventually the ball was smashed in off the bar and up into the roof of the net for an equaliser. So that was probably justice.

The second half saw Walker return, not quite to an all-McCollum back 4 but at least to right-back, with Andy Mo taking over the whistle. Both wingers were also replaced, with Steelo and the Crumb coming on for Ben and Gavin. The Law Society were again having most of the attacking play, with Renwick launching a few counter attacks which were usually undone by loose balls. By now things were looking more solid at the back, but disaster struck when a Law player was allowed to hit a shot from outside the box, and Jonny seemed to have it until it got away from him at the last second. Having now not only been pegged back but gone behind, the question at the forefront of our minds now was “How are we going to explain this to Phil?”. Steelo had a good chance to equalise, but after taking it past two players as he cut in from the left, opted to shoot instead of passing to Cromie and promptly fell over. Not a good way to stake a claim for a permanent left-wing spot! At the other end, it took some desperate defending to ensure we kept the deficit to a single goal, with Walker, who had compared himself to George Best returning in place of Darren Fletcher before kick-off, rolling back both the years and the fact that he hadn’t played sport since doing in his ankle ligaments the day before his wedding, to put in some good old-fashioned tackles.

Our equaliser came out of nothing really, as we won a corner and Sean powered home a header for his second ever Renwick goal. Pure delight and one of the most celebrated goals for a while! A stat that lasted less than a minute as right from the kick-off, Skills nicked the ball and drew a few players towards him as he ran forward before releasing it to Steelo on the left who placed his first-time shot into the corner of the net from the edge of the box. A complete turnaround in a matter of minutes! Renwick now had some heavy duty defending to do for the remaining 15 minutes as the shell-shocked lawyers rallied themselves and pushed forward for an equaliser. Then, in stoppage time, their keeper came out and lost the ball, Skills crossed it to Steelo whose shot was blocked by a defender on the line, but it was only cleared as far as Conor who hit it back towards the net, and a big Law Society defender jumped in the box and stopped it with his hands! Andy Mo then had the privilege of sending the first player off in a match Renwick have been involved in. The defender even tried to argue his case! Mark stepped up to take the penalty, cooly sending it to the left of the keeper (despite the fact it looks like the opposite corner in the photo below!) to seal a vital win.

So that’s us until the ministers’ match, as the Jonny McCollum Cup is colloquially known as (which will prob take place on Wed 28th January 09). Then World XI on the 4th of Feb and what is looking more and more like and absolutely crucial game against Derry City Supporters the Wednesday after camp reunion.

*I know.

RENWICK: Jonny; Andy Mo (Walker 46), Strob, Dave, Andy L; Gav (Cromie 46), Sean, Conor, Ben (Steelo 46); Mark (c), Skills

Photos courtesy Naomi:

Jonny is having to work these days (apart from when he’s playing football or having tea with Walker). Times are hard!

Not sure what this is about? Perhaps Naomi means somebody should have been ‘Mark’ing Conor?

- RENWICK 2 – 2 UNION THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE
- Derry top on goal difference

Renwick failed to break down a stubborn and solid Union XI this week at Ozone, and came away with only a point in their fifth league match of the season. Despite fielding a strong side against the team at the foot of the table, management was left scratching its head after a mixed performance and a disappointing result. Nevertheless, the team remain in a strong position in the Belfast Super League, as one of only three unbeaten sides left in the competition.
With Andy Johnston once again unavailable this week, Ian Buchanan started upfront with Mark, with Gav moving into centre midfield and Ben Hanna on the left. Dave Smith made his second appearance of the season at centre back, with both Sean and Robert McCollum absent. Steelo refereed the first half.
The opening twenty minutes were fairly dull and uninspiring ones. Union had yet to pick up a point in the league, but they were strong and organised in defence and in midfield. We didn’t have much luck breaking them down at the back, though we did enough to suggest we could score goals. They opened the scoring however, when their first real attack of the game led to Andy Lynch conceding a penalty for handling in the area. Despite having to take it twice, Graham of Union slotted it passed Jonny to give them the lead, something they all seemed pleasantly surprised at it has to be said!
For our part, we were disappointing for much of the half. Union were stronger in the tackle and simply wanted the game more, even if they didn’t play attractive football. But, after twenty five minutes (roughly!) Phil scored direct from a corner on the left to haul us back into the game. Shortly after this we took the lead, when Ben worked hard on the left flank, and put in a perfect cross for Mark to nod in at the near post. Union were visibly frustrated at throwing away their lead so easily, but we enjoyed arguably our best spell of the game for the rest of the half, and went close from several free kicks and corners. Union’s best chance came about ten minutes from the break, but Jonny produced a fantastic [double - S] save to deny a shot from just outside the box. We were took our lead into the interval.
Steelo came on at half time, upfront, with Gav taking the whistle for the next twenty minutes, and Ian moving to centre midfield. We started the half well, and certainly took the game to them, but didn’t quite get our final ball. Mark had a long day battling with their centre backs, who were literally pushing it with their robust challenges, and our midfield were also up against it with two good players pulling the strings for Union. Our best chance of the half arguably fell to Phil, when Ben once again broke free down the left and put in a dangerous low ball across the face of goal. The winger couldn’t get enough on the ball though, and sent it just over the bar rather than into the back of the net. Ben was rewarded with the referee’s whistle for his efforts, and can feel hard done by after his best performance yet for Renwick.
As the half wore on and our decisive third goal continued to allude us, Union gained more and more confidence going forward, and ended up producing some great work from our back five. Andy Mo, Dave Smith, Steve and Andy Lynch were all fantastic, and Jonny once again kept us in it late on with a reaction-save that, at that point, would have given them the lead. They also hit the bar and then watched the ball bounce down in front of the goal-line. Eventually however, they got their equaliser. Steve had just sent a goal kick into the midfield, which Union got to first, and sent it to their left winger. Quiet all day, the no. 7 suddenly hit a fierce shot from distance which went right into the far top corner. It was a great shot which left Jonny no chance, and Union deserved it for their second half display. Late on we had a big penalty shout, when their no. 5 gave Mark a particularly aggressive shove in the back, but Ben didn’t see it. To be fair, they had a big shout for handball down the other end as well. So, all in all 2-2 seemed a fair, if not disappointing result.
Hey, we’re still unbeaten! Thanks to Bob for the pictures and some loyal support. Our biggest match of the season comes next week against Queen’s Law Society, one Andy Lynch is desperate to win to avoid any slagging in class! Unfortunately Renwick player manager Warden Philip Dunwoody will be out of the country, and Steve McCollum will also be unavailable, so Mark McCavery will be calling the shots next week. David Walker is also tipped to make an appearance so of course we’re all very excited to see how he gets on after presumably not playing since the 2007 season ended. Please please please post a big victory for absent friends to read about in between peanut butter/jelly snacks next week! [ha! - Steelo]

The token Andy Mo throw-in photo

Phil flights one in

Definitely not high feet!

Refwell

Team (4-4-2): J.McCollum – A.Morrison, D.Smith, S.McCollum, A.Lynch – P.Dunwoody (c), C.Hyndman, G.Blackwell (S.Steele), B.Hanna (G.Blackwell) – M.McCavery, I.Buchanan