We started our first game of the season in the best possible way: the very first attack created a short. The goalie comfortably blocked Jack’s strike, only to see Lukas get to the ball first and lifting it into the open goal. The rude shock didn’t seem to wake Ely up, allowing South to surge forward again soon and win a second short. This time, it fell to the captain to find the goalie’s pads; but Lukas was in the right spot again. Mere minutes later, it was Lukas again that caused mayhem in the Ely ranks (are you starting to see a trend here?). I can’t remember the details, but it probably included him skinning a handful of opposition players and deliver the ball to Tom South for a tap-in at the post. 7 minutes in and we were 3-0 up.

Then it all started going to pot. Ely finally decided to join the game and started to put some pressure on our lines. When one of their pacy forwards slipped through the net, it fell to Shahbaz to stop him with a tackle from the Chopper book of defence. The resulting flick was clinically converted to reduce our lead to 2 goals. Worse than that, superstar Lukas misstepped and managed to ruin his own knee (clearly a lemon-worthy offense). Without subs, we were forced to play the remaining 50ish minutes with 10.5 men...

In the second half, Ely’s extra man really began to tell. Again and again their fast forwards slipped out from under the watchful eyes of our defenders. Again and again an unmarked midfielder was found meandering into our D. Heroic efforts by all men in green notwithstanding, it was only a matter of time before Ely got another goal back. Unfortunately, it was equally only a matter of time until they got a third, fourth and indeed fifth goal.

Despite this unflattering scoreline, the team did play well and was unlucky to get away without a point. Several players from Ely freely admitted that it was only Lukas’s untimely injury and our lack of subs that handed them the game. So if there is one thing to learn from this day, it’s to try and finish the game with 11 men on the pitch!