Avon Insurance Combination, Mon March 22 1999Arsenal 2 (1) Millwall 1 (0)Arsenal scorers: Tommy Black (1st half), Kaba Diawara (2nd half)Millwall scorer: some bloke (2nd half almost from the restart after we scored) Arsenal: Taylor, Bould, Grimandi, Crowe, Cole, Norbert, Huck, T. Black (Caballero 70ish), Kanu, Diawara Typical reserve match. Lots of youngsters and oldsters with the odd Kanu thrown in for good measure. Tommy Black scored a sweet volley from about four yards out from a Kanu header after a corner kick. It looked as though Kanu was trying to head the ball into the goal, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say his assist was intentional. Noone really had a bad game for either team, although their keeper looked really dodgy in the first half. He turned it around in the second and made some good saves. Diawara was probably our worst player, he looked nothing like he does at THOF. His passing was poor and his finishing was worse. He did score on around 55 minutes, it was a tap-in after some great work by Huck, but he was put through one on one with the keeper twice and failed to score on either occasion. The more he missed, the more confident their keeper got. The only time he looked impressive was when he collected the ball 20 to 25 yards from goal and ran straight at their defense. Very much like Hesky, unfortunately with the same final ball as well. Huck, Kanu and Vernazza were probably our best players overall, although Tommy Black worked really hard and showed some excellent pace and positioning he also had a second goal disallowed which really should have stood. The linesman gave him offside after Kanu tried to flick the ball past the keeper and it fell to Black. The linesman raised his flag, but I was perfectly inline with the play and he was even with Kanu when he shot. Huck was quiet in the first half but made up for it in the second. He's no Overmars, but he showed some great skill and vision. Vernazza bossed the midfield and really could have done with someone next to him to bridge attack and defense. I really rate Vernazza and can't wait till he gets a shot at more first team action. Norbert was disappointing, he kept getting too wide and out of the action and then cursing at the other players for not passing to him. Cole had a hard time on the left, but I think that was because Bouldy was playing left of centre and Cole was often against one or two on his own. Crowe looks better coming forward than defending, he got burned a couple of times. Grimandi was alright, he's got the offsides thing down pat and he got booked for an innoccous trip. Caballero replaced Black and we looked infinetly more dangerous. Caballero makes very good runs which create space for the other forwards. One funny thing though, all of the Arsenal players call him "Caba", so they kept shoouting "Caba here", "Caba here", which I think confused Diawara a bit. Taylor was excellent in goal, they could have gone in front after about five minutes, but for an excellent save from point blank range. He was great on crosses as well. I thought I saw Lukic disappearing around the corner after the match, and he may have been in goal for some of the second half. I was at the other end of the pitch from our goalie for both halves and did go to the loo for a couple of minutes, so he may have come on. Either that, or Taylor looks like Blind John from the back. Millwall scored a real scrambly sort of goal where a couple of their players were in our box, blocked shot, hooked across the goal and bloke taps it in. Oh well!
Other points: Well that's it. An afternoon well spent and highly recommended to anyone who can skive off of work to attend. Report by Ken Sterne
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