16 December 2000, Regents Park

A match reminiscent of those from the early days of CPR: a lot of verbal and a mish-mash of a kit.

CPR started the game sluggishly, struggling to put passes together and giving the oppo plenty of time to pass the ball around. This culminated in the first goal of the game, when slack marking at a throw-in allowed the TH Midfield Skinhead 1 to pick up the ball 25 yards out from goal and fairly thump it past John.

This seemed to wake up CPR, and they started to get their passing game going. Dennis was having a lot of joy down the flanks, and the pressure started to mount. Eventually the equaliser came from the highly unlikely source of Paul Dawson’s right boot: as the TH defence ran out to play offside, Paul ran through from deep on to a lovely pass from Jody, took it round the keeper and slipped it into the net.

This stung Hamlets, but their attacks were coming to nothing and CPR looked dangerous on the counter. Midway through the first half one CPR’s counters paid off, when Matty ran on to a through ball down the right wing and clipped it over the onrushing GK. Hamlets launched storming attack before half-time which had CPR on the ropes, but the rossazzuri held out.

Into the second half, a familiar story unfolded: CPR just could not seem to raise their game again, and Hamlets started to win all the loose balls – particularly their ChromeDome Clones in centre midfield – and put the CPR defence under a lot of pressure. Hamlets had by this time taken to playing a very risky offside trap, and had it not been for their ‘over-enthusiastic’ linesman who had his flag constantly raised, CPR may have had a few more chances. The best one of the half fell again to Paul D, who had made another great break from midfield, but he was stretching to meet the cross in the penalty box and he could only direct his shot onto the post.

That was a real let-off for Hamlets, and they took full advantage. Having pushed an extra man up front for most of the second half, they finally broke down the CPR defence when a push for offside went badly wrong, leaving the Hamlets sub to round John and grab the equaliser with 10 minutes left. Hamlets really had their tails up and pushed for the winner in the time remaining, but CPR just managed to hold out.

Overall, another pretty poor CPR performance: we only dominated the game for about 20 minutes in the first half, which is nowhere near enough to win games. Still, it would have been galling to lose to the TH bunch, who were not the most civil of opponents that we’ve come across. Roll on the rematch.

Final score: Tower Hamlets 2, CPR 2

Match Reporter: Garry Griffin