London Grecians win on Andros
A depleted Exiles squad with a few borrowed local Greek Grecian vets pulled off a shock result, or two, to win the annual Andros cup!
There were four teams taking part, Exeter Exiles, Hydrousa Vets, Youth, and their main team.
In a very close affair the youth pulled off their own shock to beat the main team 2-0 in the first semifinal.
In the second semifinal the Vets took a late lead against the Exiles after some neat build up through the middle left their striker one on one with yours truly who he sent the wrong way.
The Exiles' equaliser was even later and came from a long throw by Richard Clarke with Kev Fitzgerald challenging at the near post against the Vets keeper and a defender. The ball eluded them all and dropped to a Grecian guest whose shin was in the right place at the right time to force the game to penalties.
Most were superbly taken giving the keepers no chance until a Vets player skied one to give the Exiles the advantage. However in a cruel twist our annual host and guest player for the event, Dinos, hit the post with his potential shoot out winning penalty.
Sudden death arrived and the first two were dispatched with aplomb before an extremely nervous Vets player stepped up and tried to slot one down the middle. I was diving right but managed to twist left and get a foot to it to keep it out. A Grecian guest stepped up and fired us into the final!
In the third/fourth play off the main side managed to beat the Vets 1-0 in a keenly contested game.
And so to the main event and the Youth team were buzzing with the chance to not only beat a 'foreign' team they had seen play their fathers and older brothers down the years but also play against a couple of fathers and uncles.
Desperate as they were the old heads kept the youth at bay with some very organised and cool play. After the initial exchanges the Exiles were awarded a stone wall penalty and Kev Fitzgerald stepped up to fire it into the goal with a near perfect 'side netting first' shot.
Nip and tuck ensued with chances at both ends and keepers keeping their teams in it. As the clock ticked down the youth got more and more desperate racing to retrieve the ball when it went out of play but only rarely finding a way through - Frank Flores backward tumble during this period had the 100 or so spectators in fits of laughter. Ben Ahrends had a penalty appeal turned down and an exhausted Steve Rudawski was subbed as the joint managers, Roger Pyne and Jim Shepherd tried to run the clock down.
The massed Exiles supporters hearts (Julie LeM, Martin Clarke, Tina Spike and Quinn Sussex, a number of Ex-pats, plus Chis Woolcott who was also running the line) were in their mouths as the youth finally breached the Exiles defence but fortuitously (or using his considerable 'experience') the Exiles keeper (yes me) managed to block the shot with his trusty left foot and that was almost that.
With a few more minutes played out and no chances the final whistle went and the Exiles had pulled off a historic victory which was especially poignant as this tour was in memory of our host of many years, John 'Jonny' Brown, who sadly died this year at the age of 68 and we had observed a minutes silence before the game. His partner Rena who is our hostess at Villa Rena in Batsi on Andros, was the guest of honour and wore our number 9 shirt as that was always Jonny's number.
Jonny played for a number of non-league teams after starting at Leicester. In his later years he top scored for Yeovil in the 1970-1 season as well as playing for Poole and Weymouth. He played against Exeter just once in a friendly for Yeovil at St James Park in his first game for them and of course he scored.
Jonny adopted Exeter after meeting Spike and Tina, who had gone to Andros on holiday and was a founder member of the Greek Grecian Connection which has many members on the island and across Greece.
Now it's time to relax and enjoy the rest of the holiday on this beautiful and idyllic island and bask in the knowledge of another trophy for the Exiles but more importantly of another generation of islanders who will be watching out for ECFC results!
http://www.villaparadisebatsi.gr/
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andros
http://www.exeterexiles.co.uk/
http://www.exetercityfc.co.uk/
For further information, please contact Neil Le Milliere
neil_le_milliere@btinternet.com (H)
02088020644 (H)
07946615889 (M)
Words by Neil Le Milliere
