So 2014 begins much like the last few months of the previous year. But then, how many New Year’s Resolutions last as far as the 11th January, anyway? Especially nebulous ones like "do better"...

That isn’t to say this match was completely one sided, particularly in the first half. We certainly had our opportunities, moving the ball around well and creating chances. Louth were also dangerous and took the lead fairly early on when one of their forwards pounced on a loose ball in the circle and fired off a quick snap-shot into the corner. They also had a further chance that was half blocked, looped up and bounced off the top of the crossbar.

But we were also creating chances in the opening half. Our best came when Rob was fed clean through on the Louth keeper. He tried to trick his way past (on the reverse side, obviously) and got the ball through but then couldn’t avoid the stopper himself. In fact, he was sent flying to an impressive height. This only drew a short rather than the flick Rob wanted, which looked a marginal but probably good decision from my vantage point of 70m away [from there it looked like the angle was going to be too tight for it to be called a certain or likely goal. But I wasn’t using binoculars, so take this with a pinch of salt]. Rob didn’t see it that way and tried to make his case for a higher value set-piece. Which only succeeded in turning the short into a 16 yard-hit for dissent. D’Oh!

The period of play from 34:50 to ~40 minutes then decided the match. First Louth made it 2-0 with the last touch of the opening half, forcing in after a long corner precipitated a goalmouth scramble. And then early in the second they added two more, the third a solidly struck rebound from a short and the fourth a desperately soft affair almost directly from (our!) push-back. A fifth also from a short came soon after, and our heads were well and truly down. We were also clearly tiring as we were playing with just 11 men against Louth’s rolling 14.

Somewhere along the line Louth added two more, at least one of which was an unopposed tap in from a yard after they cut us completely open. At least we got on the scoreboard ourselves, even if it was clearly just a consolation. Ali dispossessed one of the Louth defenders on halfway and we immediately had an overload. Russ drew the last man and slipped in Rob. He went around the keeper on his reverse side, giving him a much wider berth this time, and then swept home with trademark pike.

The final bit of action saw Paul pick up a yellow card, his general frustration about how things were going being taken out on the Umpires, who were rightly not going to stand for it. Let’s keep that as the only yellow our team sees this season, OK?