Friendly
Falmer
August 7 2012
Forced to guess what the starting line-ups might look like
for the FDM’s testimonial game, most followers of his Albion career might have
expected Hart, Butters et al to play cameos on a teamsheet they once joined
Kuipers on to such odds-overturning success.
As it was, two near-full strength Albion and Reading sides
were far more intent on a straightforward pre-season friendly than paying
testimony to a man used to being our number one. I saw Richard Carpenter
wandering around the West Stand Lower, but that was about as close as former
glories got. Kuipers made one fantastic save before being promptly subbed less
than 15 minutes in.
Perhaps this is the way forward for testimonials. The crowd
was about the same size as those which regularly watched Kuipers for 12
Withdean years, but more might have come had it been pitched as a match-up with
a Premier League team, those who never saw him play unwittingly filling the
stadium for his symbolic farewell.
Pragmatism over sentimentality wouldn’t have mattered. There
was little of the sense of finality testimonials supposedly indicate, because
Kuipers is still around the club, even playing against us for Crawley this
Friday. It was the same kind of atmosphere as the Mayo and Hart testimonials –
both also relatively poorly attended – but this time there was a proper contest
to enjoy.
Albion more than matched Reading. Vicente gave us the lead
from a penalty after Noone, who started and played well, had been fouled. We
deserved to beat a second top-class team in four days, but Robson-Kanu beat
El-Abd to a far-post cross late on.
FDM (Kuszczak 15); Bruno, Greer, Dunk (El-Abd 78), Calde; Dicker,
Crofts, Bridcutt, Noone (Sparrow 77); God (Toby 62), Barnes (Vincelot 86)
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