No need for it

Saturday 17 May 2025, Corinthians 2 Harold Hill 0 - Essex Olympian League, Div 1, Stambridge Memorial Ground

The venue is superb for this level, fully railed, lights, dug outs and a clubhouse, with plenty of memorabilia from Corinthians games plus a bar.

Football wise, this was 1st v 2nd, with Corinthians 2 points in front and both teams having 2 further games after today.

Quickly became obvious that both teams had a number of good players, some very experienced, a few maybe coming to the end of their playing days. Both teams produced some good moves, Harold Hill almost taking the lead in the first few minutes, Corinthians did hit the post but Harold Hill just edged it as the better team in the first half, what was disappointing is that the players challenged every decision the officials made, with the Corinthians team ( and their manager/coach and dug out)  being the worst offenders. Just before the break two players got involved in a tussle, Ref spoke to the linesman but then called the wrong Corinthians player over, this caused more abuse to come from their coaching team, but the Corinthians captain kept quiet as he was the real offender, in the end the Ref got it right and booked both players ( he could have sent both them off)

Second half was still very even, then Corinthians got a penalty, on 57 minutes, but that was well saved, however this did seem to cause Harold Hill to lose their shape and Corinthians got on top and went ahead with a cracking direct free kick on 69 Minutes, scored by their skipper, who many may think was lucky to still be on the pitch. 

Corinthians now had full control and added a second goal on 79 minutes, but the game had now got very niggly and there was still time for a Corinthians player to get a red card in injury time.

Game over and Corinthians now just need 2 points from 2 games to win the league , but no time to celebrate as both teams now decoded to have a brawl with one Corinthians player wanting to fight every one.

Even with the skirmishes it was a good football game, and not sure why both teams thought they needed to behave like this, Corinthians being the worst offenders - For me what was the most disappointing aspect of the day, was present at the game were 2 or 3 senior officials from the Essex Olympian League, wearing their branded ( free?) Polo shirts, but none had the moral courage to step in and help the match officials, part of the game they spent by the home dig out and would have witnessed 40 plus minutes of abuse coming from the bench, including the constant intimidation of the young linesman. They could and should have told the bench to behave.

Thursday, I witnessed a game that was a great advert for this league, but today, stills aw a good game but ruined by the poor behaviour of the Corinthians team and coaching staff and compounded by the presence of weak league officials, who lacked moral courage to step in when they should of.