Acton United 2–3 Marlborough United: Celebi does the business
Marlborough United managed to scrape a 3-2 win at Acton. It is a proper result given the usual chaos of their back four. The saving grace was Erdem Celebi. He didn't just score twice: he operated with a sort of calm, as if he were playing in his own garden.
Celebi has this habit of drifting into spaces that shouldn't exist. He possesses a first touch that makes the ball look like it is avoiding a fight. His first goal was a tidy bit of business, but the second was the real thing. He took the ball on the turn and slotted it home with the kind of casual indifference usually reserved for putting the bins out.
Acton spent most of the afternoon chasing him. It looked like a group of men trying to catch a greased pig. Celebi didn't panic when the pressure arrived: he just moved an inch to the left and left the defender wondering where his dignity had gone. He is an honest player who does the hard graft, but he has the grace of a ballet dancer who has spent a few years in a scrap.
One hopes the rest of Marlborough can find a way to match his standards, if only for ninety minutes.