It was a dark and stormy night - no wait, those are my literary ambitions. But it was certainly wet, grey and miserable when the mighty 2s convened to vanquish yet another foe (not that last week’s win has gone to our head or anything!). In what is rapidly becoming a 2s tradition, preparation for the game consisted of Ron shouting unnecessarily at the team, followed by a shameless impersonation of the 1s’ Pepperpot™ warm-up. Unlike earlier weeks, however, the Pepperpot™ actually worked!

Properly fired up now, surely we’d quickly pound St Neots into a thin light-blue layer on the pitch? Tell you what - we’ll give ‘em push-back. Let them throw an aerial into our D - what’s the worst they can do? Ah - score. We’re yet to dare ask whether this has set a new record for the least auspicious start of a game ever...

The rest of the half is a bit of a blur. We denied St Neots any further goals. Dom spent time lying on the ground. We slowly crept forward. Dom spent time lying on the floor. We couldn’t get a proper attack going. And Dom spent some time on his arse.

Having weathered a storm of our own making, we finally started getting into our game in the second half. Passes got strung together. Dom spent more time lying on the floor. Shorts were won and wasted. Dom extended his lying on the floor to St Neots’ D. Chances were created. Dom finally made good use of his well-honed gravitational appeasement skills and scored, while lying on the ground. With about 10 minutes to go, we were back in the game! Moments later, we were also playing against 10 men, due to a somewhat overly graphical disagreement with the umpire’s decision. As the clock ticked down, both possession and territory were ours to lose - but with no more goals forthcoming, both sides heaved a secret sigh of relief to have escaped with a draw.

In the aftermath of the game (or “pub” as we call it) there were more surprises to be had. In a barnstorming performance at the hustings, Dom managed to clear the field completely and claim both Man and Lemon of the Match for the same reason. But then, you have to applaud his skill at playing hockey while face-down on the turf for the whole 70 minutes...

Lessons must be learned from this game - mostly to start playing from the first whistle, not a minute later. But there were plenty of good moments, leading to protracted pressure on St Neots defence. More importantly, the team showed good spirit getting out of the hole dug in the first minute and salvaging a draw. If we can avoid repeating the mistakes, this attitude will do us well in the second half of the season!