… that I shall ever have a cup of coffee made by Matthieu. Here I was, at 05:00 this morning, and still not tired enough to go to bed. Good job that I didn’t put any sugar in it – I would have bent the spoon trying to stir it. Yes, just a little strong.
And during the night (or maybe I ought to say “morning”) was back on the buses again and this time on my particular school run I had the daughter of the ruler of the world as a passenger. “This is my big chance to do myself some good!”
Instead, I woke up and contented myself with spending the morning editing a pile of photos that I had left outstanding since last August.
I had a nice drive down to Ménétrol through the gorgeous weather this afternoon, as Pionsat’s 1st XI were playing the local side.
Menetrol were a big, powerful side who a couple of seasons ago were playing two or three divisions higher up the pyramid, and they showed a lot of skill on the ball today.
They ran out quite comfortable victors 4-1, but that really only tells you half a story of the match – and probably not even that.
As usual, Pionsat were short-handed. No goalkeeper of course with Matthieu still being out injured and François having retired, but Michael Bucaud does his best and I’ve seen many worse than him, make no mistake about that.
And I counted at least seven regular first-teamers still with the club who were not out there today. Just one substitute, young Vincent.
Here’s Michael making an excellent reflex save from a Ménétrol forward, having initially dived the wrong way.
But Michael’s match ended shortly after this. he was injured making another save and although he carried on at first, 5 minutes later he limped off the field and blond Frederic took over.
He’s no goalkeeper either but you have to do what you can with what you’ve got. And while he let in two goals, there wasn’t really all that much than any regular keeper could have done to stop them. As I said, Ménétrol are a good side.
But by this time Pionsat were down to 10 men. The other Michael had been injured just before half-time and he didn’t make a reappearance for the second half. So it was always going to be tough.
Pionsat pull a goal back right at the end of the match. One of the Pionsat forwards, on a strong run through Ménétrol’s defence, goes down under a heavy challenge. The referee awards a penalty, which is very strongly contested by the home team as
it wasn’t a foul
it was outside the area
but the referee is the man with the whistle and he says that it is. Cedric makes no mistake from the spot, sending the keeper the wrong way
Back home, I cleaned Caliburn’s windows and checked the oil and water. And there’s a headlight out too. Of course, it’s the one that’s hard to get at so I spent about three quarters of an hour looking at the easy one seeing if I could work out how to change it.
Then of course the light goes on inside the brain and 30 seconds later the bad bulb is changed and all is working happily just like it should.
Yes, two torx-drive bolts are all that hold the headlight in on a new Ford Transit, and once you undo them, the rest is, as they say, easy.
And remember yesterday when I said that I thought that the ref had blown for full-time 10 minutes early.I’m not alone in that thought. Several people I talked to today said the same.
